Gold

This is the spot price of one troy ounce of gold, quoted in U.S. dollars — the standard way gold is priced in international markets. Gold has functioned as a store of value and medium of exchange for thousands of years, predating any national currency, and remains one of the most widely held physical assets by both central banks and private investors.

Gold is traditionally viewed as a hedge against inflation and currency depreciation, since — unlike paper currency — its supply can't be expanded by central bank policy, and it tends to hold purchasing power over long time horizons even as fiat currencies lose value to inflation. It also tends to attract demand during periods of geopolitical uncertainty or financial-system stress, when investors seek assets outside the traditional banking system.

Central banks collectively hold a substantial share of all above-ground gold as part of their foreign exchange reserves, and central bank buying or selling activity is itself a closely watched driver of gold's price. Beyond investment demand, gold also has significant industrial and jewelry demand, particularly from India and China, which adds a real-economy demand component on top of its role as a financial asset.

For most of the 20th century, major currencies were directly tied to gold under systems like the gold standard and the post-World War II Bretton Woods agreement, which pegged the U.S. dollar to gold at a fixed rate and other currencies to the dollar. That link ended in 1971, when the U.S. suspended the dollar's convertibility into gold — an event often referred to as the "Nixon Shock" — after which gold began trading as a freely floating market asset rather than a fixed monetary anchor.

Because gold pays no interest or dividend, its price has a well-documented inverse relationship with real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates: when real rates rise, the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold instead of interest-bearing assets increases, which tends to weigh on gold prices, and vice versa when real rates fall. Global mine supply grows only slowly and predictably year to year, so most short-term price movement is driven by shifts in investment and central bank demand rather than changes in physical supply.