Gold to $5,400? Goldman Sachs Tells Bears Hibernation Starts Now
Goldman Sachs bets that wealthy hoarders and hungry central banks will turn the $5,000 ceiling into a floor.
If you have been waiting for the gold market to take a breather, you might want to pull up a comfortable chair, you could be waiting a while. The relentless rally that defined 2025 has kicked down the door of 2026 with barely a pause for breath, and if the analysts at Goldman Sachs are to be believed, the ceiling for the yellow metal is being renovated into a skybridge. The bank has officially raised its price forecast for December 2026 to a striking $5,400 per ounce, a sharp $500 upgrade from their previous target of $4,900. This is not just a standard quarterly adjustment; it is a declaration that the rules of engagement for precious metals have fundamentally changed.
For years, gold trading was often tactical, investors bought the dip and sold the rip, but Daan Struyven and the team at Goldman have identified a new, more stubborn species of buyer in the market. They argue that the private sector, specifically high-net-worth individuals and family offices, has stopped treating gold as a trade and started treating it as a bunker. The bank’s core thesis relies on the idea of "sticky" demand, where wealthy private investors are aggressively accumulating bullion not to chase quick profits, but to hedge against what Goldman terms "global policy risks." We are talking about fears over US fiscal sustainability, sovereign debt loads, and geopolitical fragmentation. Unlike speculative money that flees at the first sign of a rate hike, this capital is staying put. Goldman believes these buyers will simply not liquidate their holdings in 2026, effectively raising the floor price for the entire market.

