Good morning. For the first time ever, gold is trading at more than US$4,000 an ounce, having gained 58 per cent in 2025 alone. That puts the commodity on track for its best year in nearly half a century. Gold is in focus today, along with a visualization of real-estate madness.

Telecom: Bell dividend likely on hold for three years while company prioritizes growth areas

Autos: Stellantis NV says it is moving production of the Jeep Compass to Illinois from Brampton, Ont., part of a US$13-billion plan to boost production in the United States.

Finance: RBC wants wealth management to be its next profit powerhouse, starting with a big U.S. push

Technology: Industry players say that Canada can lead the EV supply chain despite a trade war and murky policies

• Today: Canadian data we’re watching today includes new motor vehicle sales, manufacturing sales and wholesale trade for August.
• Starting today: François-Philippe Champagne will chair a G7 Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Washington, and take part in G20, IMF and World Bank Group meetings.
• Earnings: Abbott Laboratories; Bank of America; Morgan Stanley; PNC Financial Services Group Inc.; Prologis Inc.

Hi, I’m Tim Shufelt and I report on financial markets, where gold is putting up a year for the ages.

Suddenly, it’s cool to be a gold bug again. It’s been a while since that could be said. The investing community last gravitated to gold in the aftermath of the global financial crisis when trust in traditional finance was broken.

But the price of gold never went parabolic the way its faithful expected back then and gold sank back into irrelevance. (From an investment perspective, that is. It kept being used to make circuits and shiny things.)

A new paradigm for gold began in 2022 when consumer prices spiralled out of control. Popular interest in gold as an asset that keeps pace with inflation was rekindled. Since Canadian inflation peaked at 8.1 per cent in mid-2022, gold has gained around 150 per cent.

Lately, several other forces have conspired to catapult gold prices skyward. Let’s unpack some of them.

The debasement trade

When things get crazy, there has always been a place for gold in the bunkers of the fearful. War, plague, financial calamity and political dysfunction are where gold thrives.

Many investors are finding gold a palliative for America’s policy turmoil, from the overturning of the global trading system to the federal government shutdown.

Much of the Trump 2.0 agenda has pushed the U.S. dollar downward. By some measures, the greenback had the worst first half to a calendar year in more than 50 years. This has given rise to one of the buzziest trends in finance – the debasement trade.

Demand for assets that serve as substitutes for the U.S. dollar is soaring. Gold is chief among them. Crypto is there too.

Faith in the greenback as a linchpin of the global financial system is weakening. It doesn’t help that the U.S. is running astronomical federal deficits. Or that Trump poses a threat to the independence of the Federal Reserve.

Should you get in on the action?

Hot assets have a way of seducing the masses and converting non-believers. Professional investors may start to underperform the market if they don’t take part. Not owning gold these days can be hazardous to their employment.

Lots of everyday investors, meanwhile, tend to be trend chasers, latching onto an investing fad that may have already gotten a bit long in the tooth. It’s possible that gold, and not tech stocks, is the real financial bubble.

But you may have more exposure to the gold rush than you think. Gold and silver miners account for 27 of the top 30 performing stocks in the S&P/TSX Composite Index, year to date. Their average return is around 150 per cent. Any investor with a TSX index fund is already a beneficiary.

What’s next?