‘When all else fails, gold doesn’t’: Younger investors drive precious metal mania
Chasing safer investments and better returns, Gen Z and Millennials are among investors flocking to gold and increasingly silver.
Gen Z and Millennials chasing safer investments and better returns are among those lusting for gold, and increasingly silver, as global instability pushes up prices for the precious metals and boosts mining companies’ profits.
Despite a plunge on Monday, in which the spot price for gold fell as much as 5 per cent to $US4330.79 an ounce and silver slumped 11 per cent to about $US71 an ounce as traders locked in profits for the year, prices for the metals remain just below their respective record highs of $US4549.71 and $US84 reached in recent days.
Gold and silver have soared this year.
Gold and silver have soared this year. The spot price of gold was at $US3290 at the end of July, while two years ago, it was trading below $US2000. Its strong growth is a sign of its continued appeal to investors who see it as a safe haven during a period of geopolitical instability. Meanwhile, the price of silver has more than doubled this calendar year.
While much of the increased demand for gold has come from central banks around the world bolstering their holdings, retail investors are also flocking to metals in droves as interest rates and inflationary pressures diminish the appeal in keeping money in financial institutions.
Jordan Eliseo, general manager of ABC Bullion Australia, said customer turnout was so high this week that queues were still spilling out of its flagship trading premise in Sydney’s Martin Place, though not quite at levels seen in October, when gold soared above $US4000 for the first time.
‘This year has been when precious metals have gone mainstream.’
ABC Bullion Australia’s GM Jordan Eliseo
Five-gram, 10-gram and 1-ounce bars of gold and ten-ounce and 1-kilogram bars of silver are among the most popular choices for customers, he said.
However, the store queues are “dwarfed” by the numbers of punters buying gold, silver and precious products online in form of ABC Bullion’s bars or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking gold producers, he said. This includes offerings from ABC Bullion, as well as the flourishing of gold ETFs.
Eliseo said that while gold and silver prices had corrected their “over-exuberance” from October, “we’ve been very firmly back in bull market mode” over the past six weeks.
