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Why Is The Price Of Gold So Volatile?
The Macro Institute's Weekly Economic Primer
The Macro Institute
February 02, 2026
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Don’t have time to watch the whole video? Here’s 5 Key Takeaways:
🔹 The Price Of Gold Has Soared: The price of gold soared to over $5,500 last week before pulling back dramatically over the weekend. There’s a few potential reasons why this volatility has occurred.
🔹 Global Uncertainty Has Increased: Global uncertainty has been on the rise. From trade restrictions and strained alliances, confidence in the sustainability of the current economic order has decreased.
🔹 The Debasement Trade Is Garnering Attention: Investors are concerned that the current levels of monetary and fiscal spending will lead to a decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar, so they are buying hard assets.
🔹 Central Banks Have Been Buying Gold: While use cases for gold are not super compelling, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine central banks around the globe began greatly increasing their purchases if gold.
🔹 Gold (And Silver) Have Become Meme Stocks: The most likely explanation is herding behavior by investors. Said differently, gold (and silver) have become meme stocks as investors chase returns.
Miss our last few videos? No worries. Check them out below 👇
1) Explaining The "No Hire, No Fire" Job Market
2) Understanding The Role Of Inflation In The Business Cycle
3) Should America Rebuild Its Manufacturing Base?
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Macro Data Center
The Macro Week Ahead
📆 Last Week’s Data Key Takeaways
🔹 Home Prices Showed Tepid Growth: The S&P Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index posted a 1.4% annual gain for November, unchanged from October. Real home values fell as inflation outpaced price gains.
🔹 Consumer Confidence Collapsed: The Consumer Confidence Index fell to 84.5, its lowest level in more than a decade and 9.7 points lower than December's upwardly revised 94.2 reading. Concerns about jobs, inflation, and tariffs dominated.
🔹 The Fed Held Interest Rates Steady: The FOMC maintained the target range for the federal funds rate. They noted the expansion of economic activity and removed language suggesting higher labor market risk. Two members dissented, preferring a cut.
🔹 Producer Inflation Unexpectedly Surged: PPI rose +0.5% month-over-month in December, the largest gain in three months, while Core PPI jumped +0.7%, the largest increase since July. Both were well above expectations of +0.2% each.
🔹 Chicago PMI Back In Expansion: The Chicago PMI climbed to 54 in January, marking a return to growth after 25 consecutive months of decline. New orders jumped 15.8 points to levels not seen since March of 2022.
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