SILVER and GOLD leapt to fresh all-time highs on Thursday, hitting $4270 and $53.90 per ounce respectively in late London trade as global stock markets also hit new records despite US President Trump declaring that America is now in a 'trade war' with China.

Setting a new all-time high for the 9th day in 12 sessions so far in October, gold priced in Dollars has risen 15.2% since this time last month, when US investment bank Morgan Stanley's CIO Mike Wilson told Reuters that he now favours a 20% allocation to gold for investor portfolios.

That's the fastest rolling 1-month pace of gold-price gains since the 15.6% hit after the UK imposed its first Covid lockdown on 23 March 2020, throwing the London-New York flow of gold into temporary disarray.

That, in turn, was the steepest rise since August 2011, when the Eurozone debt crisis coincided with US Treasury bond being downgraded from triple-A plus the worst rioting across England in 200 years.

"The recent international situation is complex and volatile, and the precious metals market has been experiencing significant fluctuations," said a warning from the Shanghai Futures Exchange today, joining with China's Shanghai Gold Exchange in urging its members to "take risk prevention measures, invest rationally, and maintain the stable operation of the market."

Lease rates to borrow silver in London − the world's central precious metals trading and storage hub − today held around 25% annualized, an unprecedented cost prior to last week's spike towards 40%.

With world No.2 gold and silver consumer India's festive Diwali season set to climax next week, "We're seeing a run on gold, especially on coins and bars," says Ajoy Chawla, CEO of giant conglomerate Tata's jewellery division Tanishq, "maybe because of investment or FOMO [because] people are thinking gold prices will go up further.

"I won't be surprised if we run out of coins. There is a worry among customers that there may be a shortage of gold."

Citing "bubble concerns" in the stock market, plus investors seeking "inflation hedging" amid "Dollar debasement", Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Committee "believes gold's rally may be linked to a global financial shift," the US investment group now says, "as central banks reduce their reliance on the US Dollar and anticipate changes in currency markets driven by stablecoins and other digital assets."

"The market remains optimistic about the Fed's interest rate cuts," says senior gold analyst Li Mingyu at Xinhu Futures Research Institute.

"Second, there's the uncertainty created by the Sino-US trade friction" after Trump responded to Beijing's ban on exporting key REE metals by announcing a 100% US import tariff on Chinese goods, followed by Beijing and Washington raising port fees for ships docking from the US and China respectively.

"Third, political and economic instability is supporting gold prices," says Li, pointing to "the ongoing US bipartisan deadlock and the federal government shutdown, now in its third week, [plus] renewed political volatility in France and Japan [as well as] unrest in eastern Indonesia...Nepal...Argentina, and the intractable conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

"Together, this continues to challenge the established international order."