Gold and oil don’t have much in common. The former, which is almost never consumed, is generally admired in one form or another for eternity; the latter is destined for a relatively short life after extraction from its natural environs. There is one exception, though. Gold and oil share an infamous link: inflation.
Gold is the medium that historically has offered a hedge against inflation. Oil, if its price rises high enough and stays elevated long enough, is said to be a primary driver of inflation at a rate above and beyond what central banks consider acceptable.
The value of the link as a window on the future, like most relationships where money’s concerned, is open to debate. Empirically, this makes perfect sense. The instances of twin bull markets in gold and oil that’s also accompanies by rising inflation are relatively rare. The last clear example came in the late-1970s and early 1980s.
So, where’s the relevance? In the eye of the beholder.