Category World News

The price of gold has soared to a historic high, crossing $4,000 per troy ounce (31.1g) as global investors have flocked to the asset over the past year.

Gold futures, which are contracts to buy or sell gold at a certain price, passed the threshold on Tuesday, followed by the spot price of gold on Wednesday afternoon in Asia.

Gold has long been viewed as a favoured “safe haven asset” in times of economic uncertainty because it is a physical commodity that can be owned and stored.

But analysts say its surge in recent months points to a more dramatic shift: Gold may finally be breaking out of its shell to become an “asset for all occasions”.

What’s happened to the price of gold this year?

The price of gold has risen more than 50 percent since the start of 2025 in a historic run for the asset.

Much of the surge has been fuelled by United States President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House at the start of the year.

Gold prices rose sharply in April when Trump launched a trade war against much of the world, and it rallied again in August as the US president attacked the independence of the Federal Reserve – the US central bank.

In the face of so much uncertainty, many investors turned to more reliable assets, like gold.

But Trump’s tariffs and battles against the Federal Reserve are not the only factors driving gold’s continued upward trajectory since then: Japan’s leadership election over the weekend, the US government shutdown, and a deepening political crisis in France following the resignation of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu have also contributed, say analysts.

What’s behind the price surge this week?

Kyle Rodda, a senior financial market analyst at Australia’s Capital.com, told Al Jazeera that the surprise win by Sanae Takaichi in Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party leadership race had played a big role in this week’s surge.

Takaichi is set to become the next prime minister of Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy, after running on a platform of aggressive deficit spending plus tax cuts and handouts to households to encourage economic growth.

Her victory upset markets as the yen – another “safe haven asset” for some investors – dropped to a 13-month low on Tuesday, according to the Reuters news agency. Gold, it appears, became a go-to alternative.

“The rally we have seen this week … is a part of what I would call the ‘run it hot’ trade,” Rodda told Al Jazeera.

How does this year’s gold price rise compare with recent years?

The rise is dramatic.

Gold prices typically rise during periods of uncertainty, then stabilise, before rising again when there is economic unpredictability.

Between June 2020 and February 2024, for instance, gold prices fluctuated between $1,600 and a little more than $2,100 an ounce, without going up or down too much.

Gold prices rose by approximately another 30 percent in 2024. But even that surge has been significantly outpaced in the first nine months of 2025, as gold prices have curved upwards steeply.

Has gold surged this much before?

While gold has hit a historic high this year, it is not the first time the asset has experienced a massive rally.

The price of gold famously soared in the 1970s after US President Richard Nixon ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold.

Gold had been set at $35 an ounce since the end of World War II, but the Nixon administration believed the US dollar had become overvalued due to “a surplus of US dollars caused by foreign aid, military spending, and foreign investment”, according to the Office of the Historian in the US State Department.

The price of gold rose from its peg of $35 an ounce in 1971 to $850 an ounce by 1980.

The 1970s were a particularly tumultuous decade, with economic challenges like the 1973 oil crisis. A major surge followed the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran-US hostage crisis the same year.

What’s different this time?

While a preference for gold can signal economic unease, this time it is moving with – rather than against – the US stock market.

As gold prices surged to a record high this week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index both closed at record highs on Monday, according to CNBC, despite concerns about the US government shutdown.

The indexes have since fallen, but the overall trend shows that gold is increasingly being viewed as a first-choice investment, according to Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade in Australia.

“What we are seeing is that gold has in many respects become an ‘asset for all occasions’ with the precious metal showing an ability to rise during times of both risk aversion and risk appetite, whilst at the same time it continues to act as an uncertainty hedge for investors given the geopolitical risks at play in the US and abroad,” he told Al Jazeera.

“So, no longer is gold just seen as a defensive investment play. It now has a much broader reach as an investment asset given the prevailing market dynamic,” he added.

What does this say about Trump?

Waterer and Rodda told Al Jazeera that while Trump continues to impact the long-term price of gold, he is just one factor among many.

Rodda said gold has become a “five-factor” trade.

Investors are weighing the fiscal policies and rising debt of governments like Japan against ongoing geopolitical risks, US trade policy, threats to the Federal Reserve, and expectations that it will cut US interest rates in the future, he said.

In Gaza, children do not merely experience fear amid the constant bombardment and death. Fear has come to redefine the simplest concepts in every aspect of their lives.

When my three-year-old niece, Rose, touched a wall for the first time, it was as if she were touching something alien – something that didn’t belong to her world. Her tiny hand reached out hesitantly, then recoiled suddenly, as if struck by an electric shock.

“Will it fall?” she whispered, trembling.

She thought the solid wall would collapse, just as our tent – where the two of us live along with seven other members of our family – collapses whenever the sea winds rage. Rose has never known a wall that doesn’t fall. In her world, permanence is a fantasy, and everything around her is subject to collapse.

Rose is the daughter of my eldest brother. With both of her parents away working – one as a teacher and the other as a doctor – I have been her main caretaker since birth, feeding her, snuggling her to calm her down, putting her to sleep. She was one year old when the genocide started. She has been sleeping in my arms for the past two years. My embrace is the only sense of safety she knows.

In Rose’s world, walls are unreliable, air is suspicious, water is a hazard, and sound is not a sign of life – but a warning of its end.

Last month, I had to take Rose to one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals. She, like other children in our displacement camp, had gotten a rash. Her small body could no longer endure the harsh summer and the lack of clean water.

The reception area was overwhelmed. We waited with dozens of other patients – every mother carrying a story of pain on her chest, and every child looking like Rose: Pale face, fragile body, wide eyes pleading for a life that doesn’t resemble death.

In the corner of the corridor, a fan was blowing – yes, a working fan. I hadn’t seen one in months. The children approached it hesitantly, as though they were in the presence of something sacred, trying to touch the breeze.

I wanted Rose to feel it. I wanted her to know that not all wind is destructive.

But the moment the breeze from the fan touched her face, she screamed – the same scream she lets out when a fighter jet bombs our neighbourhood. She clutched at my clothes, her tiny fingers digging into the fabric, her body trembling violently.

She thought the air itself now signalled another attack from the sky. She now associates any sudden movement or sound with bombing. Even a fan feels like a threat.

I pulled her back quickly, holding her tightly against my chest, apologising without words.

How can I explain to a child that air doesn’t hurt? That a fan isn’t a warplane? That light isn’t a bomb? That the ceiling won’t fall?

On another occasion, Rose was playing with a cup of water, and she spilled it and slipped. She didn’t cry from pain, but from panic. In her mind, even such a small incident is a terrifying event.

At night, as we tried to sleep through darkness, heat, and the sounds of shelling, a nearby explosion shook our tent. Rose jumped and clutched her right ear.

“Auntie Rola … did my ear fly off?” she asked, in heartbreaking innocence.

I didn’t understand at first. Then I remembered that our neighbour had lost his ear in a strike on the market weeks ago. Rose thought the explosion had stolen her ear, just like one did his.

This is her life now – an existence wrapped in constant fear.

Rose is just one of hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza, each living through the painful trauma of war and genocide. Their world is not shaped by innocence and play, but by survival and fear.

Even if the war were to end tomorrow, it would leave behind a whole generation of Palestinian children whose childhood has been shattered. It is a trauma of immense proportions – one that would take years, perhaps decades, to address.

And this process will have to start with redefining the basic concepts of life: That walls do not usually fall, that the breeze is safe, that sound does not kill.

The US President has threatened to invoke an 1807 law to give the National Guard powers of arrest and policing. Chicago is the latest city where Trump is sending the guard, despite vehement state and city opposition.