Image Source: Unsplash

Every year around this time, we update one of our most popular and widely followed tools, the interactive Periodic Table of Commodities Returns. I encourage you to spend a few minutes exploring it. With just a click, you can see which commodities rose to the top in 2025 and which fell to the bottom.

Silver was the best-performing commodity last year, up an astounding 145%, but precious metals as a whole delivered solid returns. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium all responded positively to a number of factors, from rising geopolitical tensions to changes to global trade to the accelerating energy transition.

50 New All-Time Highs for Gold

When it comes to gold, you have to go all the way back to 1979, when the Iranian revolution and Cold War dominated headlines, to find a year like 2025. The yellow metal gained 64%, closing the year above $4,300 an ounce after hitting more than 50 new all-time highs.

So what pushed the yellow metal so high?

Rate cuts and a weaker U.S. dollar, for one. After aggressively raising rates in 2022-2023, the Federal Reserve reversed course as hiring slowed and inflation remained stubbornly high. As many of you know, lower real yields have historically been rocket fuel for gold.

Central banks, especially those in emerging markets, continued to accumulate the precious metal in a bid to diversify away from the U.S. dollar. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), central banks purchased 53 metric tons in October alone, representing the largest monthly haul for the year so far.

Gold Still Criminally Underinvested

Despite gold’s monster rally this past year, gold mining stocks remain criminally underinvested compared to the S&P 500. Take a look below. When the metal climbed in the 2000s, from around $290 in 2000 to a high of over $1,900 by September 2011, the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index surged dramatically relative to the market. (It helped, of course, that the S&P was still recovering from the financial crisis.) And when gold began to capitulate soon after, investors dropped mining stocks like a hot potato… and never returned, even as gold crossed above $4,000.

(Click on image to enlarge)

I hear from friends who say they’re not participating because they missed the last run-up. That’s the wrong way to look at it, I think. Hitting 50 new all-time highs in a single year is nice, but it’s not necessary for the metal to do its job. As a portfolio diversifier, it has historically shared a negative correlation with stocks, meaning it has often zigged when the market zagged.

Silver Stole the Show

As strong as gold performed, it was silver that stole the show in 2025. Prices more than doubled, finishing the year above $70 per ounce and notching the biggest annual gain on record.

Notably, an ounce of silver costs more than a barrel of oil right now, a highly unusual position for the two assets to find themselves in. The silver-to-oil ratio has averaged about 0.27 over the past 30 years, meaning one ounce of silver has historically bought you a little over a quarter of a barrel of Brent crude. Today, that ratio has skyrocketed to 1.2.

(Click on image to enlarge)

It should go without saying, but that’s not normal. The only other time we’ve seen silver this expensive relative to oil was back in 1980, when the Hunt brothers famously tried to corner the silver market. Some analysts see signs of a bubble.

How Chinese Export Curbs Could Send Silver Even Higher

There’s more going on with silver, of course. Today, it’s as much an industrial metal as it is a monetary one. Roughly 50% to 60% of annual demand now comes from technology and manufacturing—solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs), electronics, medical devices and more. Every solar panel uses about 20 grams of silver, while an EV can carry up to 2 ounces of it in sensors and wiring.

And that’s before we add geopolitics to the equation. Effective January 1, China has placed new restrictions on silver exports. Only large state-approved firms with massive credit limits will be allowed to export, effectively sidelining thousands of smaller players. Since China currently controls an estimated 60% to 70% of global refined silver supply, even a partial slowdown could be enough to jolt markets.

Put all that together—strong industrial demand, low inventories, looming export controls—and you get what FXStreet calls a “perfect storm” for silver.

China Controls the Global Clean-Tech Market

2025 was a breakthrough year for renewable energy. An analysis from Ember found that wind and solar supplied 17.6% of the world’s electricity in the first three quarters of the year, pushing total low-carbon generation up to 43%.

For the first time ever, renewables produced more electricity than coal.

China is the main engine behind this shift. Last year, the country added a jaw-dropping 380 gigawatts of wind and solar, more than three times the new capacity in the U.S. and Europe combined, according to energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie. Meanwhile, EVs now make up about 55% of new car sales in China, compared to 15% to 20% in the West.

As it does with refined silver, China dominates the global supply chain for clean technology. It produces around 80% of solar cells, 70% of wind turbines and 70% of lithium batteries. That’s according to reporting by the journal Science, which named renewable energy its Breakthrough of the Year.

America Takes a Step Back

Contrast this with what’s been happening in the U.S. The second Trump administration has reversed much of the federal support for clean energy while halting virtually all offshore wind projects along the East Coast, allegedly over national security concerns.

Federal loans, grants and tax incentives for renewables have been cut, contributing to at least 51 large clean-tech manufacturing projects being canceled or paused in 2025 through the end of November. Combined, these projects represent an economic loss of nearly $32 billion and as many as 40,000 jobs, according to analysis by business and investor advocacy group E2.

Record Coal Demand in a Supposedly “Green” World

Up 5.6% in 2025, coal proved once again that rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated global demand to have reached 8,845 million tons in 2025, a new record. The group estimates coal use to plateau in 2026 and then slowly decline.

(Click on image to enlarge)

After 15 years of steady losses, U.S. consumption of coal jumped an estimated 8% year-over-year, thanks to higher natural gas prices and slower retirements of coal plants, in line with President Trump’s pro-fossil fuel stance.

Copper at the Heart of the Electrification Boom

The energy transition is also reshaping industrial metals, with copper at the center.

Closing the year at nearly $12,600 per ton, representing an increase of 45.6% since the start of 2025, copper hit a number of record highs in 2025, driven by concerns that new tariffs and trade policies would tighten supplies, even as demand from power grids, data centers, EVs and defense continued to surge.

In a December report, Goldman Sachs called copper its favorite industrial metal for the long term, noting that electrification already accounts for nearly half of copper demand and that new mine supply faces unique constraints.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Fitch expects global demand for the red metal and aluminum to rise between 2.0% and 2.5% in 2026, supported by loose fiscal policy and ongoing investment in the energy transition. UBS is slightly more optimistic, forecasting copper consumption growth of nearly 3% in both 2025 and 2026.

Investors should do their own research, obviously, but I believe mining companies involved in electrification and the energy transition are likely to remain in the spotlight for some time. Investment banking firm Jefferies believes 2026 could be a year of commodities-driven earnings growth, with names like Freeport-McMoRan, Glencore, Anglo American and Alcoa singled out as potential beneficiaries.

More By This Author:

The Top 5 Most Read Market Ideas Of 2025
The Diesel Shock No One Is Talking About
Copper Rally Is Accelerating As AI Data Centers Push Global Supply Toward Crisis Levels