On September 25th, spot gold prices broke through $2,665 per ounce during trading, setting a new record high, with a total increase of 29% for the year. As of press time, the spot gold price was reported at $2,653.55 per ounce.

In terms of physical gold today, Chow Sang Sang's 24-karat gold jewelry is quoted at 778 yuan per gram, an increase of 8 yuan compared to yesterday's 770 yuan. Lao Miao Gold's 24-karat gold jewelry is quoted at 775 yuan per gram, while Chow Tai Fook quotes 773 yuan per gram.

The gold prices of major brand stores fluctuated today.

Currently, many consumers are on the fence about whether to invest in gold, with some even raising questions on social media platforms: "With gold prices soaring, should we buy gold for the National Day?"

In terms of news, the Governor of the People's Bank of China announced at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the 24th, that the reserve requirement ratio and policy interest rates would be reduced. A reduction of 0.5 percentage points in the reserve requirement ratio will be implemented soon, releasing 1 trillion yuan in long-term liquidity, and there may be another reduction of 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points before the end of the year. At the same time, the central bank's policy interest rates will be lowered, with the seven-day reverse repo operation interest rate reduced by 0.2 percentage points, guiding the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) to move down in sync.

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In the United States, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for September plummeted from 105.6 in August to 98.7, the largest single-month drop since August 2021, far below the market's expectation of 104. Federal Reserve Governor Bowman indicated a hawkish stance, stating that a cautious approach would continue to be taken towards further rate cuts; inflation risks still exist, and the labor market has not shown significant signs of weakness, so the Federal Reserve should lower interest rates at a "moderate" pace.

Despite Governor Bowman's hawkish remarks, the largest drop in U.S. consumer confidence in over three years, along with a significant decline in the Richmond Fed's Manufacturing Index for September, has increased market expectations for a U.S. economic recession and expectations for a 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in November. Both the U.S. dollar index and U.S. Treasury yields have fallen sharply, coupled with the favorable combination of domestic interest rate cuts and reserve requirement ratio reductions, gold continues to set new historical highs.

CITIC Construction Investment stated that the Federal Reserve's 50 basis point rate cut in September pushed gold prices past $2,600. The rate cut is beneficial for gold prices, but the market has already traded quite fully in advance, and the economic and inflation slowdown behind the rate cut will suppress gold price space in the future. Gold is currently overbought at $2,600, and it is recommended to take profits at high levels in the short term, with the core fluctuation range seen at $2,300 to $2,500.

In addition, the escalation of conflicts in the Middle East has once again boosted demand for risk control.

How much is the world's gold worth? A fund giant has given the answer: $20 trillion.The founder of Blokland's Smart Multi-Asset Fund, Jeroen Blokland, wrote in a tweet posted on Wednesday, "The real-time market value of gold has surpassed $20 trillion for the first time!" Along with this, he also attached a chart showing the change in the market value of gold produced by his organization.

Blokland has been closely monitoring the movements in the precious metals market for many years. Earlier this year, he repeatedly pointed out the lag in the statistics of gold market value changes on some common websites in the market.

For example, on the well-known market value statistics website Companiesmarketcap, the latest statistics for gold market value are still at $18.019 trillion. However, Blokland has repeatedly pointed out that the relevant figures are too low because the data on the above-ground gold reserves used by Companiesmarketcap is still the old data from the World Gold Council three years ago (2021).

So, how is the current gold market value that has exceeded the $20 trillion mark calculated?

The answer is actually quite simple. According to the latest data released by the World Gold Council in February this year, by the end of 2023, the global mined gold reserves are 2,125,820 tons. Converting this figure to ounces (1 ton = 35,273.96 ounces) and multiplying it by the current gold price (the highest on Wednesday was $2,670), it has just exceeded $20 trillion.

Undoubtedly, for the precious metals market, this figure is obviously a milestone worth celebrating.

What is the purchasing power of $20 trillion in gold? If compared in the stock market, the gold in the world can almost exactly buy the top ten listed companies in the world - equivalent to the total market value of Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Google, Saudi Aramco, Meta, Berkshire Hathaway, TSMC, and Eli Lilly.