Stocks and Bitcoin may be down, but gold prices just hit a six-month high above $1,800

A worker uses a cloth to dry a freshly cast 12.5 kilogram gold bullion bar at the Valcambi SA precious metal refinery in Lugano, Switzerland, on Monday, April 24, 2018. (Credit: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The S&P 500 is down more than 20% in 2022. Bitcoin has cratered over 65%. But gold? It’s up 1.3%. The classic inflation hedge has worked its magic in a wild year for investors, but it wasn’t the strong performance many goldbugs were expecting. 

The lack of impressive returns has mostly been the result of central banks worldwide hiking interest rates aggressively to fight inflation. Rising rates have increased the value of gold’s competition—the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries—leading prices to stagnate under $2,000 per troy ounce.