Gold has been trading for months around the $2,000 mark — a level that would have been viewed as stratospheric just a few years ago, and which was only breached for the first time in 2020. Even more unusually, prices have traded at such elevated levels despite high real interest rates that are bad for gold.

While many western investors did indeed dump gold holdings as rates soared last year, global demand was underpinned instead by massive purchases by central banks in emerging market countries, led by China.

While Chinese and other emerging market buying helped set the stage for the recent bullion’s records, the focus has turned to investors and their bets on when the Fed will start cutting interest rates. The initial leap higher on March 1 came after disappointing U.S. factory data and a drop in consumer sentiment appeared to bolster the case for cutting. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments reiterating the likelihood of a cut this year drove further gains, helping to propel prices to fresh records.

In the latest sign of funds having helped supercharge the recent rally, fresh data out Friday from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed that money managers were buying strongly in the week through March 5 — the day when gold jumped through its previous record.