A pedestrian walks past the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles on May 2. (AP)

LOS ANGELES, May 11, (AP): At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces. Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman’s shoe.

An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5% gold, making it worth $177,000 based on the price of gold that day. As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day.

Many of the center’s 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers. “Right now, we’re seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces,” said Alberto’s nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals. “We’re getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather’s stuff, melting it down pretty much.”

Gold’s current rally comes as President Donald Trump issues ever-changing announcements on tariffs, roiling financial markets and threatening to reignite inflation. In response, people across the country are flocking to sell or melt down their old jewelry for quick cash, including middlemen like pawn shop owners. Others, thinking their money might be safer in gold than in the volatile stock market, are snapping it up just as fast.

Los Angeles jeweler Olivia Kazanjian said people are even bringing in family heirlooms. “They’re melting things with their family’s wedding dates and things from the 1800s,” Kazanjian said. She recently paid a client for a 14-karat gold woven bracelet with intricate blue enamel work that could be turned into a brooch. The customer walked away with $3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the piece measured in troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams.

But Kazanjian doesn’t plan to melt the piece. The real artistic and historical value was a lot more, she said. “It’s just stunning … and you won’t see that kind of craftsmanship again,” Kazanjian said, adding she has persuaded some customers to change their minds about melting items. “It’s a piece of history, and if you’re lucky enough to inherit it, it’s a piece of your family.”  

Saudi Aramco engineers and journalists look at the Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant in Hawiyah, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on June 28, 2021. (AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 11, (AP): Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco posted first-quarter profits of $26 billion on Sunday, down 4.6% from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multi-trillion-dollar development plans. Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., had revenues of $108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange.

The company saw $107.2 billion in revenues and profits of $27.2 billion the same quarter last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest $600 billion in the US over the course of President Donald Trump’s term. Trump, who is set to touch down in Riyadh Tuesday on his first official foreign trip since he retook the Oval Office, said in January that he wants that number to be even higher, at around $1 trillion.

Meanwhile, the Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has his sights set on a $500 billion project to build Neom, a vast, futuristic city in the desert along the Red Sea. The kingdom will also need new stadiums and infrastructure costing tens of billions of dollars by 2034, when Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup.

The announcement of Aramco’s first-quarter results comes as the OPEC+ alliance has ramped up oil production. The oil cartel has agreed to boost output by 411,000 barrels per day next month, as uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs has rippled through Middle Eastern markets. That means Saudi Arabia will likely need to borrow or spend reserve funds to finance the crown prince’s expensive goals. Aramco’s stock traded over $6 a share Thursday, down from a high of around $8 last year.

It has dropped over the past year as oil prices have dipped, and in recent months. “Global trade dynamics affected energy markets in the first quarter of 2025, with economic uncertainty impacting oil prices,” Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement. Benchmark Brent crude traded Friday at over $63 a barrel, down from highs of over $80 in the last year.

Aramco has a market value of over $1.6 trillion, making it the sixth richest company behind Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon and Alphabet, the owner of Google. Analysts see the company as a trend leader for global oil markets. A fraction of Aramco trades on the Tadawul, while the lion’s share of the company is owned by Saudi Arabia’s government, helping pay for expenditures and adding to the wealth of the country’s Al Saud royal family.