Silver prices plunged during Asian trading on Thursday, leading a broad selloff across precious metals as renewed selling pressure erased most of this week’s brief rebound.
Spot silver sank as much as 16.7% to $73.56 an ounce, moving back toward the lows seen during last week’s sharp rout. March silver futures also slid heavily, falling more than 10% to around $73.38 per ounce.
The steep decline unfolded quickly during the Asian session and coincided with a modest strengthening in the U.S. dollar, which added pressure to the precious metals complex.
Christopher Wong, FX strategist at OCBC, said that despite the recent correction leaving metal prices less stretched, markets remain highly sensitive to dollar moves, yield repricing, and uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve policy under new leadership. He noted that while positioning may have partially reset, investor confidence has yet to fully recover, increasing the likelihood of volatile, two-way trading in the near term.
Wong described the latest pullback as more of a normalization phase than a structural trend reversal. He added that the underlying drivers of the broader metals rally—such as central bank demand for gold and industrial demand for silver—remain intact.
According to Wong, medium-term fundamentals for silver continue to be supported by demand linked to solar photovoltaic installations, grid modernization, and electrification initiatives. These themes could help limit further downside once market positioning and sentiment stabilize, even as short-term volatility remains elevated.
A stronger U.S. dollar has been a key headwind for precious metals over the past week. The greenback rebounded from near four-year lows after markets reassessed the nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair by Donald Trump, with investors viewing Warsh as less dovish than initially expected.
That shift in expectations has continued to weigh on metal prices in recent sessions. Traders also remained positioned in favor of the dollar ahead of key central bank meetings in Europe and the release of U.S. nonfarm payrolls data next week. The closely watched jobs report, originally scheduled for Friday, was postponed to February 11 following a partial U.S. government shutdown earlier in the week.
