The price of gold has reached a record high, taking the value of an average bar of the precious metal up to $1m for the first time.
The spot gold price held steady on Wednesday afternoon at $2,500.40 (£1,913.66) per ounce while gold futures (GC=F) fell slightly to $2,536.20 per ounce.
The precious metal reached $2,529.75 per ounce at an auction on Tuesday afternoon, according to the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
The London gold price benchmark showed the price of gold topped the $2,500 mark for the first time in its history of over 100 years on Monday morning, settling at $2,500.05 per ounce, taking the value of a standard gold bar to $1m, given that each one weighs 400 ounces on average.
However, Paul Atkinson, executive chairman at Atkinsons Coins & Bullion, told Yahoo Finance UK that the 400-ounce bar is “used almost exclusively for depositing with the Bank of England or the major other bullion banks”.
“It is not a bar which is easily tradeable or distributed due to its weight, size and value,” he said.
Atkinson said that most retail gold bar sizes are smaller, ranging from one ounce to one kilogram in weight. Anyone interested in buying a gold bar can find prices starting at just under $2,000 for a one ounce bar, as of Wednesday afternoon, while a one kilogram bar costs more than £62,000.
Gold prices have risen as investors await further clues as to when the US Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates.
The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July interest rate meeting are due to be released on Wednesday, which investors will pore over for any indication on the central bank’s timeline for cuts.
The price of gold has risen as the prospect of Fed rate cuts has boosted the appeal of the non-yielding precious metal for investors. (Yahoo Finance)