Overview

• Spot gold set fresh highs above $4,070 on Monday after an eighth straight weekly gain, while silver topped $51 to its highest since 1980.
• An acute short squeeze in London drove silver lease rates near 11% and benchmark premiums over New York, prompting air shipments of bars to capture arbitrage.
• Investors cited renewed US tariff threats on China, a prolonged US government shutdown, and expectations of further Fed rate cuts as key catalysts.
• ETF inflows and sustained central-bank accumulation continued to tighten supply, with domestic benchmarks in India, Pakistan, Singapore and the UAE hitting records.
• Views diverged on durability: Deutsche Bank flagged a likely cooling in the rally’s trendiness, while Bank of America lifted its 2026 gold outlook to $5,000 and Ed Yardeni projected a potential path to $10,000 by 2028.