Business & Economics
Gold Tops $4,500, Silver $72 in Christmas-Eve Metals Melt-Up
On 24 Dec 2025, a thin-holiday trading session saw gold smash through $4,500/oz for the first time while silver, platinum and copper simultaneously logged all-time highs, marking the sharpest single-day escalation in this year’s 70-160 % metals rally.
Focusing Facts
- Spot gold hit an intraday peak of $4,525.19/oz on 24 Dec 2025, closing roughly 71 % higher YTD.
- Silver touched $72.70/oz the same day—about 150 % above its January level—before settling near $70.
- Benchmark copper briefly breached $12,000 per metric ton amid fresh Chinese stimulus headlines.
Context
Commodity spikes tied to fear are not new: in Jan 1980, gold leapt to $850/oz (≈$3,000 in 2025 dollars) after the Soviet-Afghan war and U.S. inflation panic, only to tumble 60 % within two years when Volcker tightened policy. Today’s surge again blends geopolitics (Ukraine, Gaza, looming U.S.–Venezuela clash) with monetary uncertainty (anticipated 2026 Fed cuts, a 10 % weaker dollar) and structural demand from the AI–energy transition—echoing 2009-11 when China’s stimulus and QE boosted copper to $10,000/t. Yet the deeper trend is a decade-long erosion of faith in fiat and a pivot by central banks—especially in the Global South—toward tangible reserves, a dynamic that could reshape dollar hegemony over a half-century. Whether this moment proves a 1980-style blow-off or the start of a new metallic monetary regime will hinge on future supply investment, policy credibility and the success (or failure) of electrification agendas over the next 100 years.
Perspectives
Precious-metals focused financial media
Kitco.com, BNN, Yahoo! Finance — See the price spike as the start of a longer bull-market driven by Fed rate cuts, industrial demand from AI/EVs and relentless central-bank buying, projecting fresh highs well into 2026. Coverage plays up upside targets and momentum, encouraging continued investor inflows into the metals trade while downplaying risks or bubbles, mirroring the interests of brokerage analysts quoted in the stories.
Regional business press urging caution
GV Wire, @businessline — Frames the rally as over-extended with signs of profit-taking and urges investors to consider that silver and platinum look ‘overdone’ after parabolic moves. By warning about a pullback it positions itself as a sober adviser to retail readers who may be tempted to chase the surge, but it may also reflect limited exposure to commodities desks that profit from bullish sentiment.
Pakistani media highlighting U.S. militarism
GEO TV — Attributes the metals surge primarily to looming U.S. military action against Venezuela, presenting it as proof of rising global instability caused by Washington. The focus on U.S. aggression fits GEO TV’s editorial tendency to cast American policy as destabilising, giving less attention to monetary factors or industrial demand discussed elsewhere.