When Illinois resident Terry Stanton retired, most of his investments were in stocks. But he took the advice of a friend after the presidential election and moved some of his investments to gold.
With gold prices reaching record highs, he wishes he’d moved more.
Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.
“Before retirement, I still had the belief that, in the long term, that the stock market will appreciate,” said Stanton, who’d wanted to diversify his assets. “Now, the fear of an economic meltdown seems more real.”
Consumers and investors have been running to gold as the Trump administration’s frequent changes in tariff plans rock financial markets. The price of gold set records Thursday and Friday, trading at more than $3,200 an ounce after falling the previous week amid a broader market plunge across asset classes.
Adjusted for inflation, this is the highest gold has been valued since a brief spike in 1980, when the Iranian revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and high inflation sent consumers fleeing for financial safe havens.
“Let’s face it: We’ve been living now through more than five years of relentless crisis,” said Adrian Ash, research director at the precious metals market BullionVault. “Gold is a barometer of anxiety.”
Much of the recent price increase is driven by central banks and institutional investors, but industry observers say gold is also drawing fresh attention from retail investors, who are more likely to turn to the precious metal in times of uncertainty.
On Friday, the U.S. dollar fell for a fifth straight day. Consumer sentiment worsened for the fourth consecutive month, according to a closely watched University of Michigan survey. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds – typically seen as a safe haven – briefly climbed above 4.5 percent, raising fresh questions about where people turn in times of economic volatility.
“The references you’re hearing now are things you haven’t heard since the 1930s” when the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act took effect, said David Greely, chief economist at Abaxx Technologies, which is majority owner of a commodities futures exchange in Singapore. “… It makes people look and say, ‘Okay, are the assets that I thought were safe, safe?’”
Gold prices have been rising gradually since 2022, after the United States placed economic sanctions on Russia and central banks began accumulating more gold to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar. “There is a concerted effort globally – especially in Asia and the Middle East, but still globally – to diversify from the dollar,” said Robert Gottlieb, former managing director at large bullion banks JPMorgan Chase and HSBC.
The price of gold has increased 26 percent since mid-November. SPDR Gold Shares, a gold-backed ETF, or exchange-traded fund, was up 2 percent Friday and up 7 percent since last Monday.
Mining company stocks also leaped. Shares in Coeur Mining, Newmont Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines rose more than 20 percent last week.
Retail investors may have seen headlines about gold prices and decided to invest, said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, in the Los Angeles area. “The publicity keeps gold top of mind and reinforces its appeal,” he said.
Others have turned to gold to grapple with the economic uncertainty after the Trump administration’s tariff announcements, some industry observers said.
Money Metals Exchange, one of the largest retail dealers and gold depositories in the U.S., had some of its busiest days after the administration announced large-scale tariffs on April 2, chief executive Stefan Gleason said.
Gleason said his company saw interest during the coronavirus pandemic; in 2022 around the start of the Ukraine war; and during the 2023 regional bank crisis, when people worried about the safety of their accounts and the lack of interest being paid on them, he said.
For Gleason’s company, April 4 was the highest-transaction-volume day since that bank crisis. “I’m not going to say it’s mainstream,” Gleason said of gold investing. “It’s definitely not yet – but it’s become a more accepted and embraced physical asset.”
Other firms also noted recent upticks. In March, a record number of new accounts were opened at Monetary Metals, a platform where people can earn interest by leasing and lending their gold and silver, chief executive Keith Weiner said.
Retail demand for small gold bars and coins has been robust, and the precious metal seems to be drawing younger investors, said Nikos Kavalis, managing director of Metals Focus, a consultancy.
Gold tends to perform well when interest rates are low or the stock market is down. Global gold demand hit a record high in 2024, according to the World Gold Council, an industry group.
Skeptics say gold isn’t the best investment because it offers no yield and doesn’t pay dividends or interest. Some observers said it may be headed for a correction or a decline as economic pressure diminishes demand for gold used for industrial purposes or jewelry.
“Given gold’s strong run-up over the past couple of years, a degree of caution may be warranted,” Schulman said in an email to The Washington Post.
But proponents such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, view it as a reliable asset. “When I had my fund, I think people might have called me a gold bug,” he said in an interview with political commentator Tucker Carlson this month.
Costco began selling one-ounce gold bars in 2023, allowing consumers to purchase bullion without haggling with a dealer. The move suggests Costco believes gold has mass-market appeal, said Weiner, of Monetary Metals.
Proponents of owning physical gold see it as a way to avoid relying on financial institutions or paying fund management fees.
“You don’t have to worry that you’re going to be cash-settled in a trade or that whoever is holding it for you went bankrupt,” said Everett Millman, market analyst at Gainesville Coins, a gold and silver dealer.
Stanton, the Illinois retiree who invested in gold after the November election, opted for a gold-backed ETF. He estimated that he has moved about 5 percent of his investments to gold and 10 to 15 percent to municipal bonds.
He wanted to invest more in gold when prices briefly dropped during the flurry of tariff news, but he didn’t want to sell his stocks to do so at a time when equity prices had fallen.
“I can tell you right now I wish I had done more of it,” he said.
Related Content
Ja Morant dares the NBA to punish him, knowing it won’t pull the trigger
Scientists are ‘X-raying’ the Amazon, unlocking a lost human history
The Smithsonian could be the beginning of Trump’s plan to edit history. Or the end.
