Gold prices climbed during Tuesday’s Asian trading as the United States’ strike on Venezuela lifted demand for safe-haven assets.
Spot gold rose 3.1% to US$4,465.95 per ounce by 3:20 pm AEDT, reaching one-week highs. Its all-time high of $4,549.71 was reached on 26 December.
Silver prices increased by 8.4% to $78.91 per ounce.
The U.S. strike on Venezuela and capture of its president Nicolás Maduro over the weekend has bolstered demand for gold as a safe-haven asset.
Gold’s 65% price increase across 2025 was partly supported by the year’s geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have been taken to New York, where they pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and weapons-related charges at a brief court hearing.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is the country’s interim President.
The attack’s effect on gold prices may be temporary, however, according to Pepperstone research strategist Dilin Wu.
“Unless critical oil and gas infrastructure is materially damaged, the medium-term supply-demand balance is unlikely to shift significantly, and safe-haven demand triggered by potential oil supply shortages may prove short-lived,” Wu wrote.
“Although this U.S. raid is not fully comparable to previous risk events, as long as tensions in the Caribbean do not escalate, the weekend incident is unlikely to provide sustained support for safe-haven demand.”
