Why gold, silver, and copper prices have gone up in recent months
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
Despite a sharp selloff on Friday, gold and silver prices have risen quite a bit in the past few months, as have other commodities such as copper, but what is behind that?
Gold and silver have been in the spotlight the past few weeks as prices pumped to record highs. But on Friday, there was a sharp selloff for both precious metals, and to a lesser extent, for copper. Still, taking the long view, all of those metals have far outperformed the S&P 500.
After rising above $5,600 this week, gold futures dipped to $4,920 on Friday. Still, gold is up nearly 47% in the past six months and 73% over the past year. Silver has been even more astonishing. Silver futures collapsed more than 26% on Friday but are still up a whopping 122% over six months and more than 157% from a year ago. Copper is up more than 38% from a year ago.
There are different dynamics at play for the three metals, but there is some overlap, according to experts.
Gold
Gold is perhaps the most straightforward of the three metals.
Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset and typically does well in times of upheaval. People might invest in gold if they are concerned about geopolitical or economic risks. And for months, investors have been buying up the precious metal, pushing it to new highs.
Some of the global uncertainty in the financial markets this year has come from the sweeping tariffs and other trade escalations that have happened since President Donald Trump entered office.
“What gold is, of course, it’s a safe asset — and I think that demand for safe assets has just gone up in the last year for a whole bunch of reasons,” K. Geert Rouwenhorst, a professor of corporate finance at Yale University, told the Washington Examiner.
There are also major geopolitical factors at play, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, uncertainty about Venezuela, and possible unrest in the Middle East.
Notably, the dollar has posted declines. The dollar index dropped as low as 96.2 this week, down from recent highs of over 99 just last week, although it is back over 97. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index reached nearly 110 in January 2025. The relative value of the greenback has fallen 11.8% since that time in January of last year.
“Given concerns about the health of the macro picture for the global economy, given concerns about the strength and stability of the U.S. dollar, in these types of times, it’s a recurrent feature in the gold market that you have a crowding in when you have fairly high levels of …
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
Despite a sharp selloff on Friday, gold and silver prices have risen quite a bit in the past few months, as have other commodities such as copper, but what is behind that?
Gold and silver have been in the spotlight the past few weeks as prices pumped to record highs. But on Friday, there was a sharp selloff for both precious metals, and to a lesser extent, for copper. Still, taking the long view, all of those metals have far outperformed the S&P 500.
After rising above $5,600 this week, gold futures dipped to $4,920 on Friday. Still, gold is up nearly 47% in the past six months and 73% over the past year. Silver has been even more astonishing. Silver futures collapsed more than 26% on Friday but are still up a whopping 122% over six months and more than 157% from a year ago. Copper is up more than 38% from a year ago.
There are different dynamics at play for the three metals, but there is some overlap, according to experts.
Gold
Gold is perhaps the most straightforward of the three metals.
Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset and typically does well in times of upheaval. People might invest in gold if they are concerned about geopolitical or economic risks. And for months, investors have been buying up the precious metal, pushing it to new highs.
Some of the global uncertainty in the financial markets this year has come from the sweeping tariffs and other trade escalations that have happened since President Donald Trump entered office.
“What gold is, of course, it’s a safe asset — and I think that demand for safe assets has just gone up in the last year for a whole bunch of reasons,” K. Geert Rouwenhorst, a professor of corporate finance at Yale University, told the Washington Examiner.
There are also major geopolitical factors at play, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, uncertainty about Venezuela, and possible unrest in the Middle East.
Notably, the dollar has posted declines. The dollar index dropped as low as 96.2 this week, down from recent highs of over 99 just last week, although it is back over 97. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index reached nearly 110 in January 2025. The relative value of the greenback has fallen 11.8% since that time in January of last year.
“Given concerns about the health of the macro picture for the global economy, given concerns about the strength and stability of the U.S. dollar, in these types of times, it’s a recurrent feature in the gold market that you have a crowding in when you have fairly high levels of …
Why gold, silver, and copper prices have gone up in recent months
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
Despite a sharp selloff on Friday, gold and silver prices have risen quite a bit in the past few months, as have other commodities such as copper, but what is behind that?
Gold and silver have been in the spotlight the past few weeks as prices pumped to record highs. But on Friday, there was a sharp selloff for both precious metals, and to a lesser extent, for copper. Still, taking the long view, all of those metals have far outperformed the S&P 500.
After rising above $5,600 this week, gold futures dipped to $4,920 on Friday. Still, gold is up nearly 47% in the past six months and 73% over the past year. Silver has been even more astonishing. Silver futures collapsed more than 26% on Friday but are still up a whopping 122% over six months and more than 157% from a year ago. Copper is up more than 38% from a year ago.
There are different dynamics at play for the three metals, but there is some overlap, according to experts.
Gold
Gold is perhaps the most straightforward of the three metals.
Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset and typically does well in times of upheaval. People might invest in gold if they are concerned about geopolitical or economic risks. And for months, investors have been buying up the precious metal, pushing it to new highs.
Some of the global uncertainty in the financial markets this year has come from the sweeping tariffs and other trade escalations that have happened since President Donald Trump entered office.
“What gold is, of course, it’s a safe asset — and I think that demand for safe assets has just gone up in the last year for a whole bunch of reasons,” K. Geert Rouwenhorst, a professor of corporate finance at Yale University, told the Washington Examiner.
There are also major geopolitical factors at play, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, uncertainty about Venezuela, and possible unrest in the Middle East.
Notably, the dollar has posted declines. The dollar index dropped as low as 96.2 this week, down from recent highs of over 99 just last week, although it is back over 97. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index reached nearly 110 in January 2025. The relative value of the greenback has fallen 11.8% since that time in January of last year.
“Given concerns about the health of the macro picture for the global economy, given concerns about the strength and stability of the U.S. dollar, in these types of times, it’s a recurrent feature in the gold market that you have a crowding in when you have fairly high levels of …
