Precious Metals Scream Higher as Wall Street Swaps Bonds for Gold

Gold surged above $4,000 per ounce this week on massive buying and momentum.

The yellow metal is now up over 50% in 2025 -- thanks to currency debasement, geopolitical tensions, sustained central bank buying, Fed rate cuts, and now a new shift on Wall Street with investment houses swapping bonds for gold. This latest surge reflects a broader reallocation away from overvalued equities and a search for monetary stability.

Meanwhile, bullion-backed ETFs just saw their largest inflows in more than three years, reflecting growing retail and institutional participation. And U.S. retail sales volume at Money Metals Exchange has risen substantially in recent days.

But the biggest story of the week -- by far -- is what's happening with silver. Up roughly two dollars for the week as of this Friday recording, the poor man's gold is trading over its all-time high of $50. In fact, silver traded well over $51 for a few hours on the London market, where physical silver supply appears particularly tight right now.

Here's the back story...

The London market has long been the epicenter of physical precious metals trading in the Western world. You may recall all the stories earlier this year reporting on the large amount of gold and silver getting moved from London over to U.S.-based depositories trying to get ahead of potential U.S. import tariffs on gold and silver. Those tariffs never materialized, but huge amounts of metal was physically moved out of London.

Subsequently, huge physical demand for silver started coming from the Middle East, India, and the rest of Asia -- and that has been draining even more silver out of London over the past few months. Combine that with big inflows into silver ETFs -- funds that ALSO happen to source their silver in the London market -- and the available supply is getting very tight.

At Money Metals, we've seen huge silver demand coming in -- many of it coming from first-time customers. It seems the headlines are grabbing some attention out there.

Circling back to gold, several Wall Street analysts have just increased their price forecasts. Goldman Sachs bumped up its 2026 gold target to $4,900, citing demand driven by continued central bank buying and a surge of Western investment.

The big investment bank previously called for a $4,300 gold price by the end of ’26.

In a research note, Goldman said that “strong structural demand from central banks and easing from the U.S. Federal Reserve” as well as ETF demand would continue to support the gold price.

Goldman split gold investors into two groups. First, there are conviction buyers that tend to purchase the yellow metal consistently, regardless of the price, and based on their view on the economy or to hedge risk.

On the other hand, there are also “opportunistic buyers” who move in and out of the market based on price -- essentially providing a floor under prices on the way down and resistance on the way up.

Goldman analysts also expect central banks to continue increasing their gold reserves and recommended that investors in general would be well served to diversify into gold.

This dovetails with a recent seismic shift in investing advice by Morgan Stanley CIO Michael Wilson, who recently said investors should consider a 60/20/20 strategy, swapping half of the bond portfolio for gold to serve as a “more resilient” inflation hedge.

If more mainstream advisors embrace this strategy, it could drive gold demand even higher -- especially given so few Americans have any real amount of precious metals. Our podcast guest this week will expand on this during the upcoming interview.

However, many investors worry that gold might be getting ahead of itself, raising concerns of a major correction.

TD Securities’ Head of Market Strategy Bart Melek acknowledged this risk as he raised his price forecast to $4,400 by the second quarter of 2026. He called any price drops a buying opportunity.

As for the specific weekly market action before we get to the interview, gold is checking in at an even $4,000 as of this Friday midday recording, that’s good for a $100 or 2.6% increase since last week’s close.

As for the wild silver market action, it currently results in a $50.45 spot price as of this moment, up more than $2 on the week or 4.7%. This marks the 8th consecutive week now that both gold and silver have been up.

As for the PGMs, platinum is little changed at $1,611, while palladium is up at robust 11.5% to come in at $1,430.

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