Worries about war, discord and mounting government debt have fueled a worldwide rush by individuals and institutions into what Wall Street calls “physical gold"— bars, coins, jewelry and nuggets. Nervous about their country’s shaky economy and seeking hard assets outside its collapsed property market, they recently have hoarded physical gold. Investors’ rush to gold has compounded demand from central banks, which stockpile stacks of bars as monetary reserves. The acceleration in central bank and consumer buying has broken a traditional tendency of gold prices to fall when inflation-adjusted interest rates rise, said David Wilson, senior commodity strategist at BNP Paribas. “It might be that [the market’s] just realizing that ‘Hey, gold prices were probably too low,’" he said.

Source: Wall Street Journal May 11, 2024 22:56 UTC