Megan McCarty Carino

That is exactly what you might expect to see happen if the U.S.

dollar were losing its appeal as a safe haven go-to.

Marketplace and Mitchell Hartman gets us going.

Gold has been edging ever higher partly because investor stress has, says Samir Samana at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

tariffs and trade wars, geopolitical tensions in oil-producing regions, rising government debt across everywhere.

Foreign central banks have been buying up gold, too.

That's partly a defensive move.

A hostile government can slap on sanctions, but it can't seize gold out of another country's vaults.

The trend took off after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

This rise of gold in central bank holdings doesn't necessarily imply they're selling off U.S.

dollars and treasuries, says Jennifer Lee at Bank of Montreal.

There's another factor at play here, says Jay Hatfield at Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

Hatfield says the problem with momentum rallies is it's really hard to predict when they'll peter out.

I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

Wall Street today, all three major indices moved higher, perhaps expecting good things as big tech companies start reporting profits later this week.

Speaking of momentum, as Mitchell was, we will have the details when we do the numbers.

Don't look now, but we were graced with some more shutdown-delayed government economic data today.

Durable goods orders for November this time.

That is orders for big, expensive things meant to last three years or more.

Your machinery, your airplanes, too.