The gold price continued moving higher this week, reaching yet another record.
After trading as low as US$3,006 per ounce on Monday (March 24), the yellow metal took off midway through the week, closing at US$3,085 on Friday (March 28).
So what factors are moving gold right now?
Many experts agree that the precious metal is benefiting from long-term underlying drivers — like central bank buying — as well as recent turmoil surrounding tariffs, the US economy and global conflicts.
Tariffs were definitely in focus this week, with US President Donald Trump signing an executive order to impose 25 percent tariffs on all automobile imports starting on April 3.
Trump's reciprocal tariffs are also set to go into effect on that day.
Anything can happen, but at this point it seems fairly certain that gold itself is unlikely to face tariffs. Here's how Dana Samuelson of American Gold Exchange explained it:
"My opinion is that it doesn't make sense to tariff gold because it is a tier-one asset — it's equivalent to a Treasury. So they're not going to tariff Treasuries, right?
"The commodity uses for gold are about 5 percent compared to 95 percent being a monetary metal. So I don't think it makes sense to tariff gold."
He added that silver, which has strong industrial applications, could face tariffs.
Copper is another story entirely — Trump previously ordered the Department of Commerce to investigate copper tariffs, and while it was supposed to provide a report within 270 days, sources now indicate it could come sooner. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the investigation "is looking like little more than a formality," and the news has bolstered prices for the red metal.
Copper futures on the Comex in New York rose to an all-time high this week, although London copper prices declined, creating a larger spread between the two.
Going back to gold, the precious metal is also digesting last week's US Federal Reserve meeting, which saw the central bank leave rates unchanged. While officials are still calling for only two cuts this year, Danielle DiMartino Booth of QI Research thinks the Fed could cut as many as four to five times in 2025.
Here's what she said:
"I do see the pace of layoffs and bankruptcies in the US economy as probably (putting) the Fed in a tight position going into May. We've got two nonfarm payroll reports before they meet on May 7, and I think that because the unemployment rate is just a rounding error shy of being at 4.2 percent, that there is a risk — a very tangible risk given, again, all of the layoffs, store closures that we've seen in 2025 — in economic fallout, not just in the public sector, but more so in the private sector.
"The Fed (could) be at its 4.4 percent year-end unemployment rate target a lot sooner than it foresees, such that the president could be right here — we could be seeing quite a few more than two interest rate cuts this year. I foresee maybe four or five."
Friday brought the release of the latest US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data, and it shows that core PCE was up 0.4 percent month-on-month in February, the largest gain since January 2024. On a yearly basis, core PCE was up 2.8 percent.
Both numbers are higher than analysts' estimates of 0.3 and 2.7 percent, respectively.
PCE is the Fed's preferred gauge for inflation, and is expected to impact its next rate decision.
Bullet briefing — Silver squeeze 2.0?
Elsewhere in the precious metals space, silver is spending time in the spotlight as social media users plan a "silver squeeze 2.0" for this coming Monday (March 31).
Many market participants will be familiar with the 2021 silver squeeze, when members of Reddit's WallStreetBets forum tried to squeeze the market like they did for GameStop (NYSE:GME).
The movement got a lot of attention and resulted in some price movement before petering out.
This time around, the push seems to have originated on X, formerly Twitter, where it's quickly gained traction among key players in the silver community.
Days ahead of the official squeeze, the white metal's price is on the move. It rose to the US$34.50 per ounce level on Thursday (March 27), although it had pulled back to around US$34.10 by Friday's close.
The activity has sparked optimism about what will unfold next week — while silver is known to be frustrating, it can also move quickly when it does break out.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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