{"id":329663,"date":"2025-12-22T11:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329663\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T11:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:27:10","slug":"gold-and-silver-hit-record-highs-on-geopolitical-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329663\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold and silver hit record highs on geopolitical tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>Gold and silver prices rose to record highs on Monday as geopolitical tensions combined with bets on US interest rate cuts to prompt a renewed jump in the precious metals. <\/p>\n<p>The price of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/gold\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gold<\/a> rose as much as 1.9 per cent in early Monday trading, to touch $4,420 per troy ounce. Silver also hit a record, rising as much as 3.4 per cent on Monday to $69.44 an ounce.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts said the intensifying <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/4bdc644b-a756-4434-83e1-9591dbe38249\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US blockade on Venezuelan oil<\/a> was a partial explanation for the rising precious metals prices, as investors seek \u201csafe haven\u201d assets. US President Donald Trump is understood to be weighing military action on Venezuelan soil as he raises the pressure on the autocratic President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro to step down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a reminder that geopolitical and debasement worries have the same hedge \u2014 gold,\u201d said Arun Sai, senior multi-asset strategist at Pictet Asset Management. \u201cDebasement\u201d refers to the theory that precious metals, such as gold, are a hedge against the eroding value of traditional currencies such as the dollar. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvestors see gold as a way to hedge those concerns but stay invested,\u201d Sai added, explaining why the geopolitical risk factor was being expressed in commodities rather than stocks or bonds. <\/p>\n<p>After a blistering rally this year, gold and silver are on track for their biggest yearly price jump since 1979, when the Iranian revolution caused a surge in the price of oil. Gold is up 68 per cent and silver has risen 139 per cent so far this year. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/d6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net\/prod\/fc64f7d0-df18-11f0-97b7-37d740d9ba38-standard.png\" alt=\"Line chart of Comex gold price, $ per troy ounce showing Gold prices have skyrocketed this year\" data-image-type=\"graphic\" width=\"3500\" height=\"2500\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Market uncertainty caused by Trump\u2019s sweeping \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs and his attacks on the independence of the Federal Reserve prompted investors to pile into the precious metals this year. <\/p>\n<p>Investors have also been increasing their bets on interest rate cuts by the Fed next year. Expectations of lower interest rates support gold prices as investors, expecting a lower return from holding bonds, look to other assets. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe escalation in tensions between Venezuela and the US may be supporting gold prices at the margin,\u201d said Hamad Hussain, climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, although he added that \u201cbullish market sentiment\u201d was doing more work to drive the price higher. <\/p>\n<p>Copper, a widely used industrial metal that is seen as a barometer of global economic health, also climbed to a new record high on Monday of almost $12,000 per tonne. <\/p>\n<p>Copper has notched a series of new records since October, due to a combination of supply disruptions and shortage fears, and a massive influx of copper into the US that has depleted stocks elsewhere. Fears that the US administration might impose additional import tariffs in 2026 have continued to drive copper into the country in recent weeks. <\/p>\n<p>Oil prices also rose on Monday as the US pressure on Venezuela intensified. The international benchmark Brent crude rose as much as 1.4 per cent to $61.31 a barrel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-329663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}