# Gold: Correlation Prices it moves with, and why Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/correlation/ Gold is priced in London and New York as a monetary asset. Real interest rates, the US dollar, central bank buying, investor flows into exchange-traded funds and jewellery demand in India and China drive it far more than mine supply. Market price **World Bank Pink Sheet: Gold** $/troy oz · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 #### What its price moves with Selected link ##### Gold and Silver Monthly changes 0.77 strong correlation 12-month changes 0.83 strong correlation Last 5 years 0.73 monthly changes Lead or lag none No clear lead or lag Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Gold ≈ 78.6 × (Silver)^0.95 R² 0.78 On this fit, a 10% higher silver price goes with a 9.5% higher gold price over the long run. Units: $/troy oz and $/troy oz. Chart: Gold and Silver prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, log scale Both prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, on a log scale so equal percentage moves look the same size. Chart: Gold price against Silver price, monthly, log scales, with fitted line Each dot is one month; paler dots are older (2006), darker dots recent (2026); the ringed dot is the latest month. The dashed line is the fitted price function. Both axes are logarithmic. Commodity [Ag Silver](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/silver/)Precious metal 0.77 Silver is bought as a cheaper monetary metal alongside gold and reacts to the same real interest rates and dollar moves, though much of its demand is industrial. Monthly moves correlate at 0.77 and yearly moves at 0.83, gold's strongest link here. strong co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Commodity [Pt Platinum](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/platinum/)Precious metal 0.56 Platinum is a precious metal in jewellery and investment but mainly an industrial metal for catalysts, so it shares gold's monetary drivers only partly. Monthly changes correlate at 0.56 and yearly at 0.67. moderate co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Commodity [Cu Copper](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/copper/)By-product source 0.32 Many copper mines also produce gold, and gold credits lower their costs; both also respond to the dollar. Their demand drivers differ, so monthly moves correlate at 0.32 and yearly at 0.42, rising to 0.57 in the last five years. weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Energy [Oil Crude oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/crude_oil/)Inflation and cost 0.10 Oil shocks raise inflation fears, which can lift gold, and diesel is a big cost for gold miners. The data show little link, though: monthly moves correlate at only 0.10 and yearly moves at 0.18. little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show charts Commodity [Dm Diamonds](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/diamond/)Jewellery demand 0.08 Gold and diamonds compete for the same jewellery spending, especially in India and the US. The diamond index tracks US import prices and is hit by lab-grown competition, so the correlation is near zero (0.08 monthly). little or none co-movement month to month · 224 months Show charts Chemical [AC Activated carbon](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/activated_carbon/)Recovery input Most gold mines dissolve gold with cyanide and capture it on activated carbon, so carbon is a steady consumable in gold processing. It is a minor cost, and activated carbon has no free price series here. Not enough overlapping price history to measure. How to read these numbers **Correlation of monthly changes** (the number in the coloured pill) compares how much each price moved, month by month, since 2006 or the first month both series exist. It runs from −1 to +1: near +1 the two usually rise and fall in the same months, near 0 there is no link, and a negative number means they tend to move in opposite directions. Above 0.7 is strong, 0.4 to 0.7 moderate, 0.2 to 0.4 weak. **12-month changes** compare year-on-year moves, which shows whether two prices share the same cycles even when the month-to-month noise differs. **Price function** is a straight-line fit of the two prices on logarithmic scales: price ≈ k × (partner price)^β. β is how much this price moves, in per cent, for a 1% move in the partner over the whole period, and R² is the share of the variation the fit explains. Two prices that both drift up with inflation can fit well without any real link, so read it together with the monthly correlation. **Lead or lag** checks whether the monthly correlation is clearly higher when one price is shifted by 1 to 6 months. Correlation is not cause. The reasons on each card explain the economic link; the numbers show how strongly it has shown up in prices. Proxy series are US producer price indexes or related prices and can blur the real link. Data: World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet), October 2026; US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price indexes, IMF primary commodity prices and US EIA prices via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, retrieved November 2026. Calculations by this site. ## Other sections - [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/index.md) - [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/overview/index.md) - [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/extraction/index.md) - [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/production/index.md) - [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/stocks/index.md) - [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/cycles/index.md) - [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/trading/index.md) - [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/movement/index.md) - [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/criticality/index.md) - [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/characteristics/index.md) - [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/emissions/index.md) - [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/gold/links/index.md)