It's been a shaky, but improving Friday session for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far today. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has recovered form an early sell-off to push 0.22 higher. But let's talk about what's going on with ASX gold shares.

Gold shares are having a phenomenal day so far. Take the market's largest miner, Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEM). It's currently enjoying a 1.22% lift to $76.58 a share.

Most ASX gold shares are doing even better than that, though. Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) are both up more than 3% at present.

West African Resources Ltd (ASX: WAF) and Spartan Resources Ltd (ASX: SPR) have clocked gains of 3.7% and 4.9%, respectively. But Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX: RMS) is currently the best-performing stock on the entire ASX 200 Index, up a rosy 5.2% at $2.43 a share.

So, what's going on today that has resulted in these ASX gold shares smashing the market so convincingly?

Why are these ASX gold shares surging this Friday?

Well, we don't have to look too far to see what's going on. As we flagged this morning, the price of gold itself experienced a significant jump in value in overnight trading. At one point last night, one ounce of the precious metal cost US$3,059.55, a new record high for gold. Gold spot prices have since pushed even higher, hitting as much as US$3,075 an ounce on some exchanges.

With the precious metal pushing to such significant heights, it's no surprise to see the ASX's biggest gold stocks following suit today. Remember, gold miners tend to have relatively fixed costs. As such, an increase in the price of gold gives these miners' profitability a leveraged boost. That's why we usually see the prices of ASX gold shares rise by even more than the price of the metal itself during rallies. Of course, the opposite can also be true. But fortunately for gold bugs, it's the former scenario that's occurring right now.

Gold prices hit record high

Today's latest record high for gold continues a trend that has been playing out for more than a year. It was only at the start of last year that gold was going for under US$2,000 an ounce. Since then, the precious metal has rallied more than 50%, going off of today's new highs.

As gold is the classic 'safe haven' asset, we can probably put this rise down to renewed fears over global inflation, American sovereign debt, as well as continued global geopolitical tensions. This has evidently been a potent cocktail of tailwinds for gold prices. Let's see what the rest of 2025 holds in store for gold and the ASX gold shares that mine it.