The fact that gold climbed to more than $1,100 per ounce during January and has stayed there since — on the back of a rocky Chinese stock market, North Korea’s announcement that it detonated a hydrogen bomb, and rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran — proves that gold still retains its status as a safe haven among investors.

U.S. gold prices finished 2015 down 10.42 percent, its third straight negative year. Until the new year, sentiment appeared poor, and many gold bulls were finding it hard to stay optimistic. But after the recent price jump, large exchange-traded gold funds saw massive inflows, confirming a shift in investors’ attitudes toward the precious metal.

It is worth remembering that about 90 percent of physical demand comes from outside the United States, mostly in emerging markets such as China and India. In many non-dollar economies, buyers are actually seeing either a steady or even rising gold price. The metal is up in economically troub