Argor-Heraeus’ CEO Robin Kolvenbach holds one kilo bars of silver and gold at the plant of refiner and bar manufacturer Argor-Heraeus in Mendrisio, Switzerland, July 13, 2022.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
Gold and silver prices plunged on Friday, sparking a global sell-off of stocks and funds linked to the metals.
By 5:04 a.m. ET, spot silver was down 15% to settle at around $98.66 per ounce — taking it back below the $100 milestone.
Spot silver
Meanwhile, spot gold shed 7% to trade at $5,009.46 an ounce.
Spot gold
Prices of the precious metals also faltered on futures exchanges, with front-month gold contracts losing 5.5% in New York, while silver futures for February delivery were down by 11%.
The sell-off gripped the wider precious metals market, with spot platinum down more than 14%, while palladium fell close to 12%.
On stock exchanges across the globe, the impact was also visible. In Europe, the regional Stoxx 600 Basic Resources index — which includes the continent’s most valuable mining companies — was 3.2% lower in morning deals.
London-listed Fresnillo, the world’s biggest silver producer, was last seen 7% lower.
In pre-market trade on Wall Street, silver miner Endeavour Silver was down 14.7%, while First Majestic Silver lost 14.4%. Silver ETFs were dragged into the action, with the ProShares Ultra Silver fund last seen 25% lower ahead of the opening bell. The iShares Silver Trust ETF lost 12.7%.
Precious metals have been on a stellar rally over the past 12 months, amid broader market volatility, the decline of the U.S. dollar, bubbling geopolitical tensions and concerns about the independence of the Federal Reserve.
Gold and silver both enjoyed record-smashing rallies in 2025, surging 65% and 150%, respectively, over the course of the year. Those gains have largely continued into 2026, with silver adding 37% while gold is up 15.4% year-to-date.
‘Even good assets can sell-off’
Katy Stoves, investment manager at British wealth management firm Mattioli Woods, told CNBC on Friday morning that the moves were likely “a market-wide reassessment of concentration risk.”
“Just as tech stocks — particularly AI-related names — have dominated market attention and capital flows, gold has similarly seen intense positioning and crowding,” she said. “When everyone is leaning the same way, even good assets can sell off as positions get unwound. The parallel isn’t accidental: both represent areas where capital has flooded in based on powerful narratives, and concentrated positions eventually face their day of reckoning.”
Meanwhile, Toni Meadows, head of investment at BRI Wealth Management, argued that gold’s run to the $5,000 mark had happened “too easily.” He noted that the unwinding of the greenback had supported gold prices, but that the dollar had appeared to stabilize.
“Central bank buying has driven the longer-term rally but this has tailed off in recent months,” he said. “The case for further reserve diversification is still there though as Trump’s trade policies and intervention in foreign affairs will make a lot of countries nervous about holding U.S. assets, especially those countries in the emerging markets or aligned to China or Russia. Silver will mirror the direction of gold, so it is not surprising to see falls there.”
Claudio Wewel, FX strategist at J. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that a “perfect storm” of geopolitical tensions had helped precious metals move higher this year, pointing to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Washington’s threats to use military force in Greenland and Iran.
More recently, he said, speculation over who will be nominated as the next Fed chair has been influencing metal markets.
Global investors are anticipating who will be nominated as the next chair of the Federal Reserve after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would announce a successor to Jerome Powell on Friday. Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, who served at the central bank during the 2008 Financial Crisis, is currently the favorite in prediction markets to secure the job.
“The market has clearly been pricing the risk of a much more dovish contender, that’s been largely helping the gold price along with other precious metal prices. Over the last 24 hours, the news flow has changed a little bit,” Wewel said.
