The escalating conflict between Iran and its agents and Israel has led to a short-term surge in precious metal prices. However, UBS precious metals strategist Joni Teves said that the continued rise of gold and silver is not related to geopolitics.

She said, "Geopolitical uncertainty and risk do not have a direct impact on gold prices. Ultimately, the way we view gold is that it increases investors' desire to hold gold as part of their diversified investment portfolio and serves as a hedge against these types of uncertainty, but the current price response is actually not direct

Teves said that the truly important factors for the trend of gold and silver are interest rates and macroeconomic factors. She said, "The way we look at gold is that what matters is the real interest rate, and macroeconomic factors ultimately drive the development of gold. When headline news is exposed, there may be a subconscious reaction, but ultimately, the more sustainable impact on gold prices is actually the interest of investors in making gold a part of their investment portfolio

When asked about the impact of the upcoming US election, Teves said that so far, the US election has not had a significant effect on the trend of gold prices. She expects investors to continue buying as many bystanders are still searching for opportunities to enter the market.

Subsequently, Teves was asked about UBS's views on other precious metals.

She replied, "We believe that silver has great potential to outperform gold in an environment where gold prices are rising and the Federal Reserve is relaxing its policies. From a fundamental perspective, we also believe that the silver market will continue to experience supply shortages, which will provide some support for silver prices

She stated that for platinum and palladium, the driving factors are more fundamental rather than macro level. She pointed out, "For example, we do see a supply shortage in the platinum market, which we believe will drive prices higher in the medium to long term. However, we believe that this trend will be slower because there are still a large amount of platinum inventories in the market that need to be digested

Teves added, "As for palladium, we do not believe there is a clear long-term trend. We believe that palladium prices will fluctuate within a wide range in the coming years. We expect a shortage of palladium in the coming years, but in the long run, due to competition from electric vehicles, the market will experience an excess

Teves stated that UBS's year-end target price for silver is $36 per ounce, and they expect silver prices to rise to $40 by 2025.