Gold’s surge to an all-time high is winning over a wider fan base of pension funds, insurance companies and private wealth specialists.
Managers who run long-term portfolios worth trillions of dollars are taking interest in gold as they search for returns in a yield-starved investing landscape. The broader array of buyers is one of the key dynamics behind the rally to $2,000 an ounce, even as gold’s traditional customers in India and China remain on the sidelines.
In the past, when bonds offered heftier yields, many professional investors had little use for gold. A broad portfolio of stocks and bonds could generate a reliable yield, and the two assets would balance each other out during market downdrafts. Gold, which offers no income, is hard to value and costs money to keep in storage.
But now, the math has shifted. With $15 trillion in debt offering negative yields and the Federal Reserve likely holding rates near zero for the foreseeable future, some on Wall Street are questioning the wisdom of owning bonds and looking elsewhere for assets to hedge against equity volatility.