Gold climbed to a new high on Tuesday while silver also rallied as investors go long on metals amid US elections uncertainty and Wall Street's expectations of lower interest rates.

Gold futures (GC=F) rose as much as 0.8% to hover near highs of $2,770 per ounce while spot gold inched to a record just north of $2,759. Silver futures (SI=F) gained more than 1% to top $34 per ounce, levels not seen in over a decade.

"It's very clear that they've [gold and silver] experienced a high degree of momentum in recent weeks and months," Chris Vecchio, global co-head of macro at trading platform tastylive, told Yahoo Finance.

"We are really in the early innings still of a multi-year shift towards precious metals," he added.

Investors are betting on precious metals amid expectations of continued lower interest rates from the Federal Reserve and other central banks. High interest yielding assets like bonds become less attractive in a lower interest rate environment.

Additionally, precious metals are generally thought of as a hedge against inflation. While inflation in the US has come down recently toward the Fed's 2% target, a number of upward pressures on prices — ranging from the possibility of more tariffs to efforts to re-shore manufacturing — remain in the long run.

"That ultimately means higher structural inflation, less productivity moving forward. And so on a per dollar basis, everything's going to cost a bit more," Vecchio said.

Gold purchases by central banks have driven up prices by 28% year-to-date as geopolitical tensions have kept investors focused on the precious metal as a safe haven asset.

Silver, which is also used for industrial purposes, is up 37% during the same period.

Goldman Sachs analysts recently said the purchases of gold by central banks will remain "structurally elevated."

The analysts have a price target on the precious metal of $2,900 per troy ounce for early 2025.

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.

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