Joe Wallace

We're less than a month into 2026 and gold prices have risen 17% so far this year.

That's nothing, though, compared to the silver market, which is up 8% this morning.

and 55% for the year so far.

So this is a really historic rally in both precious metals.

There's also some concern among investors about the independence of the Federal Reserve after the DOJ investigation into Chair Jerome Powell became public earlier this year.

There are a couple more things going on.

The Fed has been lowering rates and gold prices typically do well when rates are lower.

That's because gold doesn't pay any dividends or contributions.

coupons.

So the opportunity cost of holding what essentially is a shiny piece of metal falls when interest rates are themselves lower.

And then central banks around the world just keep on buying gold in their droves.

This had been going on for years, but it really picked up speed after 2022 when the West put sanctions on the Russian central bank reserves and

Central banks and other countries that aren't aligned with the West started thinking, hang on, do I really want to hold quite so many dollars?

Maybe I should own some gold in my foreign exchange reserves in case my dollar holdings get weaponized in the same way.