By Jake Conley

As equity and bond markets looked increasingly skittish in the face of domestic and geopolitical economic tensions this year, precious metals revived their status as a flight-to-safety trade.

The spot price of gold (GC=F) bullion crossed $4,000 per troy ounce for the first time in early October. Spot silver (SI=F) crossed the $50 per troy ounce mark for the first time in decades.

On Wednesday, spot gold was trading north of $4,220 per ounce, hitting another record, while silver was changing hands above $53 per ounce, according to Trading Economics data. Futures were trading slightly higher on gold and slightly lower on silver.

And Wall Street sees more room to grow.

If just half a percent of US assets held by foreign investors were to be moved into gold, for instance, the yellow metal could hit $6,000 per ounce, JPMorgan analysts said.

"Who sells gold?" Bloomberg commodity index products head Jigna Gibb said. "If you hold gold in your portfolio, it acts like a teddy bear in some way — it's a point of comfort."

While bullion is often the most visible metal for flight-to-safety trades, rising tides have lifted all precious metals. Silver and platinum (PL=F) futures have risen more than 80% and more than 85%, respectively, on the year. Futures on palladium (PA=F), another popular "platinum group metal," or PGM, is up more than 75%, compared to gold's more than 60% increase.

Read more: Thinking of buying gold? Here's what investors should watch for.

Given the Trump administration's ongoing lack of clarity around long-term tariff policies, Macquarie Bank analysts predict that PGM prices will "pull back," but "this dip [will] be bought and ongoing [dollar] weakness [will] then help prices make new highs during Q1."

In the wake of the 2008 stock market crash, gold and platinum saw gains of roughly 160% and 130%, respectively, from 2008 to 2011, while silver gained more than 400%. In 2020, pandemic-driven fear trades saw gold and platinum climb more than 25% and 65%, respectively, while silver gained more than 90%.

This April, President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement temporarily crushed the stock market and sent investors flocking to store-of-value assets. Expectations for additional interest rate cuts have also provided a boost to precious metals as holding non-yielding assets gets cheaper.