Metals are having a moment. And it is loud, shiny, and unapologetically macro.
Gold blasted through USD4,460 an ounce on Monday, not just an all-time high but a psychological mic drop in a year already stuffed with records. It has now vaulted past its inflation-adjusted 1980 peak, answering a decades-old question: what if fear never really left?
Silver is stealing scenes too, up more than 2.3 times this year—its best performance since shoulder pads were fashionable. Copper, meanwhile, the unsung hero of electrification and artificial intelligence plumbing, is charging toward USD12,000 a ton in its biggest annual surge since the post-crisis rebound of 2009.
The plot drivers are familiar, but the volume is turned up. Rate-cut expectations are back in vogue, the dollar is sliding toward its steepest annual decline since 2017, and geopolitical nerves are frayed.
A weaker greenback makes metals cheaper abroad and has reignited the so-called “debasement trade” or the belief that hard assets are the last line of defense against ballooning government debt and policy experimentation.
Central banks are acting on that belief. They are buying gold hand over fist, building physical stockpiles to diversify away from the dollar and insure against economic turbulence. It’s less a vote of panic than one of pragmatism.
Lower rates, if they materialize, only sweeten the case. Gold doesn’t yield, but when cash yields shrink, that flaw fades fast. Markets are divided on how many cuts the Fed delivers in 2026 (possibly none), but metals are clearly betting on easier money eventually.
Silver’s rally reflects its split personality: part crisis hedge, part industrial workhorse. Demand from solar, EVs, and data centers is relentless. Copper tells the same story, more bluntly: the energy transition and AI boom are metal-hungry, and supply is struggling to keep pace.
The takeaway is sharper than the shine. Metals are pricing a world of softer money, heavier debt, and thinner confidence. Whether the rally sticks depends on policy, not poetry. But for now, the message is clear—when uncertainty rises, metals speak loudest.
