The spot price of gold reached $2,137.80 early Tuesday morning, and settled down to around $2,125.00 Tuesday evening. The previous record high was around $2,079 on Dec. 27, 2023.

Adjusted for inflation, we have seen higher gold prices in the past, including in 2020 and 2011, and in 1980 the price of gold averaged around $677, which would be around $2,600 in today’s dollars. Still, today’s high gold prices are significant.

There are a variety of factors that have pushed up the current price of gold. Phillip Streible, the chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures, told Yahoo Finance that “there is a perfect storm brewing in the gold market.”

Turmoil and uncertainty on the world stage are a contributing factor. Although 2023 was a good year overall for gold prices, the price took a dive in late September, and was around $1821 on Oct. 5, 2023. The Gaza – Israel conflict began on Oct. 7, and since then the price of gold has gone up more than $300, around 17%.

The current gold price rally kicked in on Friday following a disappointing report from the Institute for Supply Management showing a drop in the manufacturing index.

The gold market currently is anticipating that the Federal Reserve will be making an interest rate cut, the first since March 2022. Many are anticipating that the rate cut will come in June of this year, although it could happen earlier. Gold is an asset with no yield, so it becomes more attractive when interest rates are lower.

Gold prices have also been driven up by months of heavy buying by central banks and Chinese investors.

The U.S. jobs report which will be released on Friday, March 8, will influence the gold price, and could send it higher.

Where is the price of gold headed? Some analysts see reasons why gold may be overbought, but many are quite bullish on gold.

Streible told Yahoo Finance that in the coming year “I think $2,500 is a realistic target.” Jesse Felder, founder of the Felder Report, told Kitco News that “we’re looking at $2,700, $2800, perhaps over the next year or two. Technically, gold just looks very, very good.”

The recent increase in the price of gold has had a positive effect on the share price of the mining companies that are producing gold in Nevada. In the five business days from Feb. 28 to March 5, most of the companies with gold mines in Nevada have seen a significant increase in their share price, with the exception of SSR Mining. SSR’s stock price dropped about 54% following the landslide disaster at the Copler Mine in Turkey on Feb. 13, and the company’s stock price has stayed at about the same level since then.

From Feb. 28 to March 5, Barrick Gold’s share price was up 7.7% to $15.53, Newmont Corp. was up 12.6% to $33.34, Kinross Gold was up 6.79% to $5.19, Coeur Mining was up 15.94% to $2.91, Calibre Mining was up 10.62% to $1.25, i-80 Gold was up 10.08% to $1.42, and McEwen Mining was up 32.79% to $8.10.

Ryan McIntyre, who serves as managing partner at Sprott Inc. and senior portfolio manager at Sprott Asset Management USA, told Kitco News that higher gold prices are going to add more value to the undervalued mining sector, and that gold mining companies will be seeing significant momentum. He said this is especially true of the large-cap producers.

“With gold prices where they are, these producers are literally printing money,” Mcintyre said. “I don’t even think you have to wait for a buying opportunity. The gold miners are so beat up, there is plenty of room to buy.”