NEW YORK (AP) — The gold rush reached new highs in early 2026, and prices hit a new record earlier this week. And all over the world, people have lined up to sell pieces of the precious metal they already own or buy amid the frenzy.
Consumers go to local merchants to collect gold jewelry. Some buy gold coins or bars for the first time. Others are also putting money into investments like exchange-traded funds, trading the value of the metal in a similar way to stocks.
New York spot gold on Wednesday hit a record high of more than $5,418 per troy ounce, the standard for measuring precious metals. Prices have fallen since then, with futures falling below the $5,000 mark on Friday afternoon, perhaps signaling a broader correction. The swings in value also became more pronounced after news leaked that President Donald Trump would nominate former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the US central bank.
Gold can be volatile and unpredictable. Still, prices are much higher than a year ago, when the spot price in New York was less than $2,795 a troy ounce. Here’s what consumers need to know.
What drives gold price surges?
A lot of this comes down to uncertainty. Interest in buying gold (and other precious metals, such as silver) often increases when investors become anxious.
Gold prices rose around the world at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid ongoing wars and unrest over Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods. The latest records coincide with escalating geopolitical tensions in Venezuela and Iran, Trump’s repeated calls for the United States to seize Greenland, and his increasingly combative stance toward US allies.
There has been “a real breakdown in the way we think about how the world order works, if we want to call it that,” said Daniel McDowell, a political science professor at Syracuse University. In times of instability, he explains, buying gold has historically been a kind of “psychological reaction” for some hoping to find a safe place for their money.
The latest gold rush also corresponded with a weakening of the US dollar and questions about the future independence of the Federal Reserve.
Growing demand from merchants
More and more jewelry sellers and precious metals dealers are seeing an increase in the number of customers looking to buy or sell gold.
The boom is tangible in Paris’ historic district for gold, silver and coin dealers. Godot & Fils merchants say they have a flow of customers from opening to closing, amounting to about 100 transactions per day.
Annick Le Toulleca, 76, came to sell broken jewelry that she had kept for years. “Even keeping money in the bank seems a little risky,” he told The Associated Press. Others were buyers. After purchasing a gold coin, Christophe Thooris, 53, said he decided to convert some cash into gold in hopes of protecting his savings.