The Financial Review has reported that gold futures have topped US$4,000 for the first time. That means you could sign a contract to deliver gold to a customer in December at US$4,000 an ounce.

Record high gold prices usually reflect heightened tensions in the world economy. The press is point to the government shutdown in the US and political uncertainty in France. This part is unclear. Nobody really knows the motives behind deals in gold prices but, nevertheless, increases in gold prices are usually a good sign that there are problems in the world economy. 

People who wheel and deal in the financial markets tend towards safe assets when there are problems about. Uncertainty about individual companies means things like share prices may become less stable so speculators in shares will dump them and seek safe havens in things like gold.

The following graph from Trading Economics tells the story.

You could almost say the graph of gold prices follows the fortunes of Donald Trump. Since the end of 2023 and over the following two years the price of gold doubled. The sharp movement over the fortnight to 6 October is also apparent on the graph.