Gold Hits $5,300: Inside the Breakneck Rally Driven by Politics and Policy
As the Greenback crumbles and geopolitical tensions simmer, a dovish shift on Wall Street sends precious metals into uncharted territory.
Editorial Team (ET)January 29, 2026
If you were waiting for a signal to check your jewelry box, this is it. Gold prices have officially abandoned gravity, smashing through the $5,300 ceiling to set a fresh record high. The catalyst for this latest vertical leap wasn't just typical market jitters, but a presidential blessing of sorts. While the US dollar crumbled to its weakest level in four years, President Donald Trump told reporters in Iowa that he thought the currency was "doing great," effectively giving the green light to currency bears everywhere.
The yellow metal surged as much as 2.5 percent on Wednesday, building on a massive jump from the previous day. This aggressive rally has pushed year-to-date gains to roughly 22 percent, a staggering return that has gold bugs and retail investors sprinting to allocate more cash to bullion. But gold isn’t the only metal shining; silver has gone ballistic, rising almost 60 percent this year and flirting with a record high above $117 an ounce. The moves are so violent that CME Group had to step in and hike margins on silver futures to keep a lid on the chaos.
Wall Street is pinning much of this frenzy on a potent cocktail of fiscal anxiety and rumors regarding the Federal Reserve. Bond traders are increasingly betting that BlackRock’s Rick Rieder will replace Jerome Powell as Fed Chair. Rieder, a Wall Street veteran known for favoring aggressive approaches to lowering borrowing costs, is seen as the harbinger of a new, dovish era. With the prospect of rates heading lower and the administration renewing attacks on the Fed's independence, non-yielding assets like gold and silver have suddenly become the smartest trade in the room.
