Gold prices retreated on Thursday, giving back earlier gains, while silver suffered a steep selloff that erased much of the brief recovery seen earlier in the week.
By 09:25 ET (14:25 GMT), spot gold was down 3% at $4,819.27 an ounce, while April gold futures fell 2.2% to $4,839.49 per ounce. Silver was hit far harder, with spot prices plunging nearly 13% to $73.60 an ounce after being down as much as 16% earlier in the session. March silver futures mirrored the move, sliding to an intraday low of $73.38.
Silver sinks as rebound quickly fades
Silver emerged as the weakest performer across the metals complex. Selling pressure intensified during Asian hours, after a sharp rout in Shanghai silver futures spilled over into global spot markets. The latest decline has largely wiped out silver’s recent rebound and pushed prices back toward the lows recorded last week.
Christopher Wong, FX strategist at OCBC, said that despite the recent correction, precious metals remain highly sensitive to currency moves and monetary policy uncertainty.
“Even as prices are now less elevated, sensitivity to the USD, yield repricing and uncertainty around Fed policy under new leadership remains high,” Wong said, warning that confidence has not fully returned and that choppy, two-way trading may persist.
Still, Wong noted that silver’s underlying fundamentals remain supportive, given its dual role as both a precious metal and a key industrial input.
Losses were also seen across the broader metals market. Spot platinum slid 7.7% to $2,010.20 an ounce, while benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange fell 1.2% to $12,910 per tonne.
Stronger dollar weighs on metals
The pullback in metals was compounded by renewed strength in the U.S. dollar, which firmed ahead of key U.S. nonfarm payrolls data scheduled for next week. The jobs report, originally due on Friday, was postponed to February 11 following a partial U.S. government shutdown.
The dollar’s rebound has gathered momentum since U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Warsh is widely viewed as a less dovish choice, raising expectations that broader monetary conditions could remain tight even if interest rates eventually decline.
Earlier on Thursday, both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged, in decisions that were largely anticipated by markets.
