Gold has jumped above $5,000 an ounce for the first time, as Donald Trump’s chaotic policies.
According to The Guardian, the price of the yellow metal reached a record high of $5,100 on Monday morning, January 26, before easing back to settle up 2.2% at $5,089.
The historic moment came as Trump threatened Canada with 100% tariffs if America’s northern neighbour “makes a deal with China”, and after the US president’s dramatic showdown with Europe over the future of Greenland.
With global financial markets already jittery, there are also rising fears of another US shutdown after Democrats threatened funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the weekend shooting of a man in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Monday’s milestone is the latest in an extraordinary and historic run for gold that has seen its price jump by nearly 90% since Trump’s inauguration a little over a year ago.
Steve Miller, an investment strategy adviser at GSFM, an Australia-based asset manager, said he had not seen anything like it in his four decades working in financial markets.
“The second oil shock and the inflation scare in the late ’70s, early ’80s would be the last time I remember when gold did this – and that was before my time in markets. If the Federal Reserve is doing this on behalf of the US Treasury, they’re only doing it for one reason: they think the US dollar is too high,” he said.
Notably, gold saw a blockbuster year in 2025, with its biggest annual gain since 1979 as investors flocked to precious metals.
