Robin Kolbenbach, CEO of Algol Heraeus, holds one kilogram of silver and gold bars at Algol Heraeus’ factory in Mendrisio, Switzerland, on July 13, 2022.
Dennis Bariboos | Reuters
Gold and silver prices plunged on Friday, triggering a global selloff in stocks and funds tied to the metals.
by 5:04 a.m. Eastern Time. spot silver It fell 15% to settle around $98.66 an ounce, below the $100 milestone.
spot silver
meanwhile, spot gold It fell 7% to trade at $5,009.46 an ounce.
spot gold
Prices for precious metals were also weak on futures exchanges, with front-month gold contracts down 5.5% in New York and silver futures for February delivery down 11%.
The decline affected the entire precious metals market, with spot platinum dropping more than 14% and palladium dropping nearly 12%.
The impact was also felt on stock exchanges around the world. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Basic Resources Index, a region that includes the continent’s most valuable mining companies, fell 3.2% in morning trading.
Listed in London FresnilloShares of the world’s largest silver producer last fell 7%.
In premarket trading on Wall Street, silver miner Endeavor Silver fell 14.7% and First Majestic Silver fell 14.4%. Silver ETFs were dragged along by the move, with the ProShares Ultra Silver Fund down 25% before the opening bell. The iShares Silver Trust ETF fell 12.7%.
Precious metals have enjoyed an impressive rally over the past 12 months amid broad market volatility, a weakening U.S. dollar, rising geopolitical tensions, and concerns about the independence of the Federal Reserve.
Gold and silver both hit record highs in 2025, rising 65% and 150% respectively over the year. These gains have largely continued through 2026, with silver up 37% and gold up 15.4% year-to-date.
“Even good assets may be sold.”
Katie Stoves, an investment manager at British asset management firm Mattioli Woods, told CNBC on Friday morning that the move was likely a “reassessment of concentration risk across the market.”
“Just as tech stocks, especially AI stocks, are dominating market attention and capital flows, gold is similarly experiencing intense positioning and crowding,” she says. “If everyone is leaning in the same direction, even good assets can be sold off as positions unwind. This similarity is no coincidence. Both represent areas where capital is flowing in based on strong narratives, and concentrated positions will eventually see a day of liquidation.”
Meanwhile, Toni Meadows, investment director at BRI Wealth Management, argued that gold’s rise to the $5,000 level happened “all too easily”. He noted that the unwinding of the US dollar has supported gold prices, but the dollar appears to be stabilizing.
“Central bank buying has been driving the long-term rally, but that has slowed in recent months,” he said. “That said, there is still room to further diversify foreign exchange reserves, as President Trump’s trade policies and diplomatic interventions have made many countries, especially emerging market countries and those allied with China and Russia, nervous about holding US assets. Silver mirrors the direction of gold, so a decline there is not surprising.”
Claudio Wewell, currency strategist at J. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that a “perfect storm” of geopolitical tensions has contributed to the rally in precious metals this year, pointing to the U.S. detention of Venezuelan President Maduro and U.S. threats to use military force against Greenland and Iran.
He said speculation about who will be named the next Fed chair has been impacting metals markets in recent days.
Investors around the world are looking forward to who will be named the next Federal Reserve Chairman after US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would be naming Jerome Powell’s successor. Former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, who worked at the central bank during the 2008 financial crisis, is now the leading candidate on prediction markets to succeed him.
“The market has clearly priced in the risk of a more dovish competitor, and that is pushing up gold prices significantly along with other precious metal prices. The news flow has changed a bit in the last 24 hours,” Wewell said.
