(NEW YORK) — Silver prices on Monday suffered their largest single-day drop in almost five years, before rebounding nearly 8% in midday trading on Tuesday. Some other precious metals, including gold, rode a similar rollercoaster.
The turbulent stretch comes near the end of a banner year for gold and silver, which rose far faster than even the robust stock market. Gold has climbed 66% in 2025, while silver has soared a staggering 160%. The S&P 500, by comparison, has jumped 17% over that span.
Bumpiness in recent days owes in part to the meteoric rise over prior months, some analysts told ABC News, saying investors likely cashed in on those gains by selling off their holdings.
The downturn in prices at the outset of this week followed an adjustment by exchange operator CME Group, which increased the amount futures traders must pony up in order to participate in the topsy-turvy markets for precious metals.
The uptick in the amount of such payments — known as margins — likely deterred some investors and pushed prices lower, analysts added. Prices boomeranged higher on Tuesday, suggesting some investors viewed the dip as a buying opportunity.
“These were some of the worst one-day losses in the history of trading in both gold and silver going back 50 years,” Jim Wyckoff, senior market analyst at Kitco Metals, told ABC News.
“Extreme price volatility in commodity markets is a signal of the final stages of a mature bull market run,” Wyckoff added.
Over the course of the year, heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty boosted demand for gold and silver, which typically display a degree of independence from movements in stock prices. Volatility in bond markets and a devaluation of the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, unsettled alternative assets typically viewed as safe-haven investments.
The flight to gold in moments of market turbulence draws on decades of evidence, according to an analysis co-authored in 2025 by Campbell Harvey, a professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business who studies commodity prices. The price of gold moved higher during eight of the last 11 major stock market selloffs stretching back to the late 1980s, researchers found.
“Gold is a safe-haven asset because people believe it’s a safe-haven asset,” Paolo Pasquariello, professor of finance at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “It’s a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.”
However, gold and silver prices carry volatility of their own, especially when buyers enter the market at a high point, risking losses instead of providing a security blanket, analysts said.
The rollercoaster this week could foretell volatility for gold and silver prices in 2026, Pasquariello said, pointing especially to a murky path forward for interest rates.
The Fed cut interest rates three consecutive times over the latter part of this year. Its benchmark rate now stands between 3.5% and 3.75%. That figure marks a significant drop from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Policymakers at the central bank appear divided over where interest rates should go next. Three of the 12 voting members on the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC — a policymaking body at the Fed — dissented from the most recent quarter-point rate cut, the highest number of dissenters since 2019.
President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for lower interest rates, is set to appoint a Fed chair next year. The leadership perch offers a large public platform, but it carries a single vote, like any other member of the FOMC.
Lower interest rates establish financial conditions favorable for gold and silver, since meager interest rates reduce the comparative benefit of interest-bearing investments such as savings accounts. A rate reduction also slashes the cost of borrowing for traders who speculate in precious metals, potentially juicing investment further.
“It looks like there is a significant split at the Federal Reserve about whether to cut interest rates or not,” Pasquariello said. “Markets like gold and silver – which in my mind have sensitivity to this rate uncertainty – will experience volatility the most.”
“People buy gold and silver for a safe haven,” Pasquariello added. “I don’t see that happening in 2026.”
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