Gold Isn’t Dead After All. Why Prices Are Heading Higher—and Dragging Newmont Stock With Them.

Gold futures jumped 6.5% in November, shaking off worries of a pullback. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

Key Points

• Gold futures rose 6.5% in November, reaching $4,285.40 per troy ounce, nearing the Oct. 20 record high of $4,359.40.
• Mining stocks follow gold’s rally, with Newmont climbing 12% and Barrick Mining surging 27% in November.
• Barrick announces plans to explore an initial public offering for a subsidiary that would hold its North American gold assets.

For a second this fall, it looked like the gold rally had hit a wall. Those fears didn’t last very long.

Gold futures jumped 6.5% in November as stocks wobbled. Continuous contract prices now sit at $4,260.20 per troy ounce, just off the record-high of $4,359.40 reached on Oct. 20, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Prices remain on track this year for their largest percentage gain since 1979, when the Iranian Revolution triggered an oil crisis and double-digit inflation.

Where gold prices go, mining stocks follow. Newmont , one of the world’s largest miners, climbed 12% last month and has gained 147% in 2025. U.S.-listed shares of Barrick Mining surged 27% in November and have now gained 167% this year.

In fact, miners such as Newmont and Barrick have emerged as something like a leveraged play on bullion in recent months—skyrocketing when prices rise and tumbling when they pull back. It is uncharted territory for stocks tied to a commodity that is supposed to be a steady asset.

Some of gold’s November comeback is down to increased odds the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates on Dec. 10, said Kyle Rodda, a senior financial market analyst at Capital.com. Markets see an 87.4% chance of a cut of 25 basis points, according to CME FedWatch.

Overall market sentiment “is being supported by the higher odds of an upcoming Fed cut, along with, to a lesser degree, the strong results still being served up by US corporates,” Rodda wrote in a note Sunday. “The dynamic is also weakening the US Dollar and helping gold prices edge back towards record levels.”

The November bounce has put miners in a position of strength. On Monday, Barrick announced it would explore an initial public offering of a subsidiary that would hold its premier North American gold assets.

The move would give shareholders more direct exposure to Barrick’s gold mines in Nevada and the Dominican Republic. Barrick, which also mines copper and gold elsewhere in the world, intends to retain a significant controlling majority interest in the spinoff, the company said.

Markets appeared to like the idea of a stand-alone spinoff. Barrick stock was up 3.1% on Monday. Newmont rose 1.4%.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com