Gold price boosted by silver-buying frenzy

Gold prices received a slight boost on Monday amid the market frenzy over its sister metal silver, whose price surged more than 11% earlier to an 8-year high.

Spot gold rose 0.8% to $1,863.70 an ounce by 11:50 a.m. EST, trading at a near two-week high. US gold futures on the Comex were also 0.8% higher at $1,865.50 per ounce.

Silver – often dubbed “poor man’s gold” as it is impacted by the same factors as bullion but is much cheaper to buy – has risen nearly 15% since last Thursday, when posts began circulating on Reddit urging retail investors to buy silver mining stocks and iShares Silver Trust, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) backed by physical silver bars, in a similar fashion to the GameStop short squeeze.