Gold rose above $4,700 an ounce for the first time on Thursday, extending a rally that has made it the best-performing major asset of the year, while European stocks posted their strongest session in a month as bank earnings beat expectations.
Spot gold gained 1.6 percent to $4,712 an ounce, surpassing the record it set in September. The metal has climbed more than 40 percent in 12 months, driven by central bank purchases, a weakening dollar and investors’ unease with the debt levels of large governments. Silver rose to $58 an ounce, and platinum gained 2 percent.
“Gold is being bought as insurance against everything at once: a weaker dollar, sticky deficits, trade disputes, and now the possibility that European rates go lower,” said Matthias Keller, head of commodities research at a Zurich asset manager. “When the list of worries is that long, the price does not need a single catalyst.”
The Stoxx 600 rose 1.1 percent to 620.4, its highest close since early September. Banks led, with the sector index up 2.8 percent after a Spanish lender and an Italian lender reported third-quarter profits above forecasts, citing strong fee income and lower provisions for bad loans. The DAX gained 1.2 percent, the CAC 40 0.9 percent and the FTSE 100 0.7 percent. Madrid’s IBEX 35 rose 1.6 percent.
Government bonds were little changed, with the 10-year Bund yield at 2.62 percent. A senior E.C.B. official said in a speech in Frankfurt that the bank had “no reason to be complacent” about inflation running below target, a remark that traders read as mildly supportive of a rate cut this month. Money markets price the probability of an October move at about 50 percent.
The euro was steady at $1.215. Brent crude stabilized at $57.80 a barrel after Wednesday’s slide, and European energy shares recovered about half of their losses.
Among other movers, a Belgian rail-equipment maker fell 19 percent after the European Commission blocked its sale to an Austrian rival, and shares of several Italian luxury goods companies declined after a consultancy forecast a third consecutive year of falling industry sales.
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 12, 2026, Section B, Page 10 of the European edition with the headline: Gold Tops $4,700 for the First Time as European Stocks Rally on Bank Earnings.
