Gold Hits New Milestone—$3,000 an Ounce

By Rob Bates | March 14, 2025

On March 14, the spot price of gold crossed a once unimaginable milestone—$3,000 an ounce.

At press time on Friday, the yellow metal was trading at $2,984 an ounce. Earlier in the day, it had hit a record $3,004 per ounce.

Most market watchers suggested that new U.S. tariffs and the prospect of a trade war were giving bullion a boost. The new milestone follows a week when the stock market saw huge declines.

“Most of gold’s price action is around the uncertainty related to tariffs,” Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a research note quoted by The New York Times.

Alexander Zumpfe, a precious metals trader at Heraeus Metals Germany, told the BBC that “amid escalating geopolitical tensions, rising trade tariffs, and growing financial market uncertainty, investors are increasingly seeking stability—and they are finding it in gold.”

He said the price could go even higher.

Marcus Garvey, head of commodities strategy at Macquarie, thinks that gold may eventually hit $3,500, according to a note quoted by Yahoo! Finance.

“Year-to-date, gold has been running ahead of our expectations,” he wrote.

Beyond tariffs, analysts have cited heavy buying from central banks looking to reduce their dependence on the dollar as another factor in gold’s surge.

For weeks, it seemed almost inevitable that gold would hit $3,000 an ounce, especially after it breached $2,900 for the first time on Feb. 10, only nine days after crossing $2,800.

To put the phenomenal rise in perspective, on March 1, 2024, gold opened at $2,043 an ounce. The gold price has risen 13.5% so far this year.

(Photo: Getty Images)