Gold opened at $3,055.10 on Monday, down 3.58% from all-time highs last week as investors reacted to U.S. President Trump’s April 2 announcement of global tariffs. Weakness in the stock market usually bodes well for gold, but all bets are off the table in today’s economic environment.

​​The spot price of gold fell Friday to $3,012 after opening the day at $3,110.15. The 3.17% decline improved slightly on the intraday low of $3,011. Gold is up 16.77% since Jan. 1 and was down 2.55% last week amid the tariff turmoil.

The S&P 500 fell 9.1% last week after two historically bad single-day declines. The U.S. dollar also weakened, which is the opposite of the intended tariff effect. Investors are nervous about the U.S. economy and the possibilities of recession and inflation. Gold’s record highs last week aligned with the uncertainty, as many consider gold a safe-haven asset when currencies and stocks are volatile.

The opening price of gold today was $3,055.10, 1.43% higher than when the markets closed on Friday.

The price of gold at opening today was 5.05% higher than when the markets opened one month ago on March 7.

The price of gold this morning was 31.37% higher than when the markets opened at this time last year.

Gold price tracking 24/7: Don’t forget you can track the current price of gold on Yahoo Finance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Want to learn more about the current top-performing companies in the gold industry? Explore a list of the top-performing companies in the gold industry using the Yahoo Finance Screener. You can create your own screeners with over 150 different screening criteria.

Whether you’re tracking the price of gold since last month or last year, the price-of-gold charts below show the precious metal’s steady upward climb in value.

Investing in gold is a four-step process:

1. Set your goal.

2. Set an allocation.

3. Choose a form.

4. Consider your investment timeline.

The first step to investing in gold is understanding your goals for buying it.

Given gold’s historic behavior, three suitable investing goals for a gold position are:

1. Diversification into an asset that moves independently from stock prices

2. Protection against inflation-related loss of purchase power

3. Backup source of value and wealth in an unlikely economic collapse

Gold has long been part of a balanced portfolio given its ability to hold its value — or even increase further — when the value of other assets is falling. That is why investors utilize gold as a stabilizer. Investors rely on gold’s strength in tough times to limit unrealized losses in equities and inflation-related reductions in purchasing power of cash deposits. That’s exactly what we’re seeing play out now before our eyes.

Gold is also a widely recognized store of value. As such, the precious metal can potentially stand in as a medium of exchange if the dollar collapses.

“I recommend that everyone buy a little gold as a hedge against calamity,” said Scott Travers, author of “The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual” and editor of COINage magazine, in an interview with Bottom Line, Inc. Gold “should be viewed as an insurance policy,” he added.

Learn more: How to invest in gold in four steps

Once you determine you’re ready to buy gold for the right reasons, you have three options on where and how to buy it:

1. Physical gold

2. Gold mining stocks

3. Gold ETFs

If you’re interested in physical gold, next time you go to Costco (COST) you can pick up some gold with that rotisserie chicken. If combining your food and gold shopping isn’t for you, you can buy physical gold from a gold dealer in your local area.

If you’re interested in learning more about investing in gold mining stocks, Yahoo Finance tracks the performance of companies principally engaged in gold exploration, mining, processing, extraction, and smelting.

You can also monitor the performance of the popular SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF at Yahoo Finance.

Gold prices have a history of being notoriously volatile. Gold investors should focus on the historical value gold has gained over many decades and always pair that long-term price appreciation with a balanced portfolio that steadies the ship during the times when gold’s value tarnishes.

If you are interested in learning more about gold’s historical value, Yahoo Finance has been tracking the historical price of gold since 2000.