The price of gold has hit an all-time high amid investor jitters over tensions in the Middle East and speculation that US interest rates will be cut in the summer. Investors began piling into the asset – seen as a safe haven – on Tuesday, with the price hitting a record high of $2,141.59 an ounce and surpassing the previous high of $2,135 in December, before falling back to around $2,128.
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According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the US Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates, now at 23-year highs, in June. Reductions in borrowing costs tend to increase the value of gold.
At the same time, it is known that gold is also used as a safe haven during periods of political and financial uncertainty. Proof of this is that it has risen more than $300 an ounce since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, and some analysts believe it could surpass the $2,300 mark.
Gold, bitcoins and foreign markets
The hoarding of gold by investors comes despite a lack of support from one of the world’s best-known businessmen. In a speech at Harvard in 1998, Warren Buffett said that gold “has no use; anyone looking down from Mars would be scratching their head,” he asserted at the time. However, this precious metal has always been highly revered by investors.
While commodities such as gas have fallen this year, investors have backed other assets, including bitcoin, which also hit records this week after breaking above $69,000 per coin on Tuesday, and markets for foreign values, driven by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
As for the most famous cryptocurrency in the world, with this record of $69,202, it has already surpassed the historical ceiling, from November 2021, of $68,999.99. Investor interest has increased since the SEC (the US stock market regulator) approved eleven bitcoin exchange-traded funds at the end of January, and also because of the prospect of lower interest rates.
2024-03-06 11:17:21
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