publication
2026-01-23 19:49
Dollar prices of gold and silver reached new all-time highs on Friday. Silver was valued at over one hundred dollars an ounce for the first time in history. Some slightly less active gold futures series have exceeded USD 5,000/oz.
The further weakening of the US dollar pushed bullion prices to new records. Financial markets seem to be in love with precious metals these days and are coveting them regardless of price. The absolute hit of the last three months is silver, which was quoted at highs of $101.68 per troy ounce on Friday.
This is a historic moment for the white metal, which has never before reached triple-digit prices expressed in USD. In fact, in October an ounce of silver cost less than $50, remaining below the memorable peaks of January 1980 and April 2011. However, it took less than three months for silver prices to double.
Great things are also happening on the gold market, which has been rising in price almost constantly in recent days, gaining as much as a hundred dollars per ounce during the day. Friday's increase of 1.4% was less spectacular (only +70 USD/oz.), but it still brought the price of the “barbaric relic” to close to 5,000 dollars per troy ounce.
When I write “gold price”, I mean the quotations of the most active series of futures contracts on the New York Stock Exchange. Currently, the largest number of open positions concerns contracts maturing in February, which valued the royal metal at USD 4,981.90/oz on Friday evening. But the second most active series of futures (maturing in April) was quoted at USD 5,019/oz. So for the first time in history, we have gold with forward delivery priced above USD 5,000/oz.
Gold and silver prices have been rising so fast in recent days, weeks and months that analysts cannot keep up with raising their forecasts. Just yesterday, experts from Goldman Sachs raised their forecast for the year-end gold price from USD 4,900/oz to USD 5,400/oz. – We assume that private sector buyers looking to protect their portfolios against global political risk drive the upside potential and will not liquidate their gold positions in 2026, Goldman analysts wrote.
Currently, this is the highest forecast among the world's largest investment banks. Only Citi Research experts assumed an equal amount of USD 5,000/oz by the end of the year. The remaining predictions range from $3,825 (UBS) to $4,900 (Commerzbank).
In my opinion, all these speculations are only a very superficial analysis of what is currently happening on the gold market. We seem to be dealing with a once-in-a-generation revaluation of the yellow metal, which is roaring back to its rightful place in the global financial system. It is also a harbinger of a new world order in which the US dollar will no longer be as important as it was for the previous 80 years.
