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Copper led a blistering metals rally on Thursday that also pushed prices of gold and silver to record highs, as investors pour into the metals at an unprecedented pace amid concerns about the dollar and geopolitical turmoil.
The red metal rose 6 per cent having briefly crossed the $14,000 per tonne threshold for the first time.
Gold soared to a new high of almost $5,600 per troy ounce, putting it on course for its strongest monthly surge on record, while silver extended its frantic rise this year to $120 an ounce.
“The moves are so unhinged from everything else,” said Chris Jeffrey, head of macro strategy at L&G’s asset management arm. “I’m not sure what your framework for buying at this stage would be other than it is going up and it will continue to go up.”
While copper is primarily known for its industrial uses, its recent surge has been supported by an unprecedented level of investor demand and speculators entering the market, according to analysts.
One indicator that buyer interest in copper is starting to mimic that in gold is inflows into copper exchange traded funds. Money going into such ETFs in the US has “exploded” this year, with $1.2bn in net inflows so far, already more than double the $426mn seen in the whole of 2025, according to Sprott Asset Management.
Rising geopolitical uncertainty and waning confidence in the US dollar, which has historically been seen as a haven asset, have driven investors to look for reliable stores of wealth, with gold a clear winner.
“The continued de-dollarisation, the sense of further interest rate cuts, all these things are fuelling the demand for gold,” said Ian Cockerill, chief executive at gold producer Endeavour Mining. “In 50 years in the industry, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time when the tailwinds for gold are so strong.”
Gold prices have hit a series of records this year, rising by almost 30 per cent to surpass Wall Street banks’ end-of-year forecasts — which averaged around $4,700 a troy ounce — less than one month into 2026. This has pushed buyers to look for alternatives, with copper and silver among the metals now winning attention.
The prices of nickel, zinc, aluminium and lead traded on the London Metal Exchange all rose in morning trading on Thursday, with the LME daily index, which tracks six base metals, close to its record high set in 2022.
The run-up in metals prices was part of a “momentum trade that’s dominated by new risks”, such as Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and questions about US Federal Reserve independence, said Tom Price, analyst at Panmure Liberum.
“People don’t really know what that means but they think it’s risky and want to protect their capital so are buying more gold and silver. But those prices are also high, so they’re buying copper,” he said.
Record metals prices have also fuelled the share prices of global mining companies, which have added almost half a trillion dollars to their combined values over the past month. But physical metal is often considered a safer bet than equities among analysts.
“A mining company’s value is largely based on the commodity that it delivers to market,” but equities carried an “execution risk”, in the challenges that come with operating a mine, and “management risk”, said Price.
Experts expect a shortage of copper in the medium term, with prices forecast to keep rising. Miners Glencore and Antofagasta on Thursday reported small falls in their production of the red metal in 2025 compared with 2024.
Yet, the money flowing into metals does not necessarily indicate higher real world demand for the materials, analysts have cautioned. Helen Amos of BMO Capital Markets said in a note that fresh data suggested “sluggish demand for Chinese crude steel, copper, and zinc in November and December”. China is the world’s largest consumer of many commodities including copper.
Additional reporting by Rachel Rees and Ian Smith
