Gold and silver have both stormed higher this August, driven by a softening dollar, mounting US government debt and fading expectations of a further Federal Reserve rate hike, as investors return to safe havens.
Precious metals have become one of the standout trades of the month, clawing back losses suffered earlier in the year, silver even more sharply than gold.
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Gold touched an all-time high of $5,598 an ounce on 28 January, before a sharp pullback during the year dragged it down to around $3,942 by end of June, a decline of roughly 30% from its peak.
Since that low, the metal has rebounded with the bulk of the move happening in August, and is trading around $4,466 at the time of writing. As it stands, gold is up 11% this month and 3.6% year-to-date.
Silver's rally has been even more dramatic.
The metal hit an all-time high of $121.65 an ounce on 29 January, before tumbling to around $54.7 by mid-July, a slide of roughly 55% from its peak.
It has since climbed by around 20% with most of the move occurring in August, and is trading at around $66 at the time of writing. As it stands, silver is up 16.5% this month but is still down over 7% year-to-date.
The latest leg higher in precious metals gathered pace this week after the US Treasury doubled the size of its buybacks of 10 to 30-year debt to at least $4 billion (€3.4bn) per operation from 9 September, aiming to calm a jittery bond market.
The announcement landed hours before separate figures confirmed the US national debt had topped $40 trillion (€34.4tn) for the first time, roughly two years ahead of the US Congressional Budget Office projections.
The 30-year Treasury yield had climbed to its highest level since 2007 before easing on the buyback news, and the dollar fell sharply in response, reviving talk of the so-called dollar debasement trade, the theory that a growing debt pile erodes confidence in a currency over time.
Weak US jobs and retail sales data, alongside soft inflation figures, also prompted traders to pare back the odds of a September rate hike, with CME FedWatch data showing that probability falling from above half to roughly one in three.
Lower yields make non-yielding gold and silver more attractive, while central banks and exchange-traded funds have kept adding to their positions, according to data from the World Gold Council.
