Gold and silver prices surged in Q3 2024, driven by central bank buying and macroeconomic factors. While gold experienced a historic price increase, silver's price was influenced by both its precious metal value and industrial demand. YTD through September 30, gold is up 27.71% and silver has gained 30.95%.

In our webcast with Nasdaq, John Ciampaglia discusses the rapid emergence of technologies like AI, the race to upgrade power grids, continuing global decarbonization goals and growing middle classes. He gives an overview of how the critical materials behind energy—such as uranium, copper, nickel, lithium and more—are likely to remain growth-oriented investment opportunities for the long term, and how to invest in them in a single allocation.

Gold has been on the move since Q2 ended, after having gained 12.79% year-to-date as of June 30, gold's best six-month start since 2020. Gold enjoyed strong support from central bank buying. Silver closed Q2 at $29.14, its highest quarterly close since Q3 2012. Silver was supported by the gold breakout and global monetary expansion policies.

Silver is a critical player in the global shift toward cleaner energy. Solar panels and EVs, both essential for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, rely heavily on silver. Other new technologies, including AI, have also sparked demand for silver, while overall silver supply has declined.

Replay our webcast, focused on gold and silver, and featuring John Hathaway and Maria Smirnova. Gold is enjoying strong support from central bank buyers like China, and silver is benefitting from increased demand for PV solar panels.

Despite a pullback on gold investments, demand from sovereigns and central banks remains unwavering. Over the past decade, China has been committed to bolstering its gold reserves to enhance its economic and geopolitical standings. Silver is likely to be in high demand as the energy transition expands, given it is critical to solar PV panel technology, EV batteries and 5G cellular service. 

Uranium's performance helped the energy transition complex close higher in September. From a macro outlook, solar panels are emerging as a critical player in the global energy transition. Evolving technologies in renewable energy, especially in the solar space, are driving a surge in silver demand which may likely outpace supply over the next decade.

As the world sets aggressive goals to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and move to cleaner energy sources, critical minerals will be essential. Due to years of underinvestment, we believe demand is likely to outstrip supply for many energy transition materials, including uranium, lithium, copper, nickel and others. The investment opportunities may be powerful.

We believe we are in the early stages of an energy transition materials secular bull market and favorable supply-demand dynamics are likely going forward. The upward revision in global growth, the timing effect of the China credit impulse and the surprise ending of China's zero-COVID policy have provided a tailwind for the metals market. For energy transition metals, we see this as a cyclical boost on top of the robust secular demand that is in play.