Gold prices keep hitting records. How high can they go?

Gold has been having a very good year.

That sentiment couldn’t have been clearer on Tuesday, October 7, as the precious metal hit a new milestone: $4,000 an ounce.

As of early Wednesday, gold was up over 53% year to date.

That’s significantly higher than the growth seen by major stock indexes over the same period The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 9.93% this year, the S&P 500 is up 14.42%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 18.19% as of the market close on Tuesday.

As a so-called safe-haven asset, gold has benefited from a few things this year, including a weakened dollar and an unpredictable economy. The latter has been especially true since the U.S. government shutdown on October 1. 

That Wednesday morning saw gold reach new all-time highs, with spot gold and U.S. gold futures reaching $3,894 and $3,922, respectively.

Gold has continued to trend upward over the last week, reaching a high of $4,050 today. 

Yes, but will it last?

Clearly the U.S. government shutdown has, at least so far, been a coup for gold, but for how much longer? Of course, there’s no guarantee either way, especially with no end in sight for the shutdown.

Financial experts have found themselves split on their predictions. 

Goldman Sachs has taken a bullish approach, raising its estimated gold forecast from $4,300 to $4,900 per ounce for December 2026.

“We see the risks to our upgraded gold price forecast as still skewed to the upside on net, because private sector diversification into the relatively small gold market may boost ETF holdings above our rates-implied estimate,” Goldman stated during the Monday announcement, according to Reuters. 

Meanwhile, Monday saw Bank of America take a much more bearish stance, Fortune reports. Bank of America’s technical strategist, Paul Ciana, warned of an elevated “risk of correction.” Ciana posited that factors like buying based on momentum and overbought signals mean that gold’s speedy rise could be coming to an end. 

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