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(Bloomberg) — Silver hit the highest in decades as a historic short squeeze in London intensified, with a fresh surge in prices adding urgency to a worldwide hunt for bullion that could alleviate the mismatch between demand and supply. <\/p>\n
Spot silver climbed as much as 3.1% to near $52 an ounce, exceeding last week\u2019s peak, while gold surpassed $4,080 an ounce, building on a record-breaking run of eight weekly gains. Platinum and palladium also jumped, amid signs that market stresses caused by surging investor demand are starting to spread to other precious metals.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Concerns about a lack of liquidity in London drove silver closer to a $52.50-an-ounce record from 1980 \u2014 set on a now-defunct contract on the Chicago Board of Trade exchange. Benchmark prices in London have soared to near-unprecedented levels over New York, prompting some traders to book cargo slots on transatlantic flights for silver bars \u2014 an expensive mode of transport typically reserved for gold \u2014 to profit off the massive premiums in London.<\/p>\n
Silver lease rates \u2014 which represent the annualized cost of borrowing metal in the London market \u2014 surged to more than 30% on a one-month basis on Friday, creating eye-watering costs for those looking to roll over short positions. Lease rates for gold and palladium also tightened, signaling a broadening pull on London\u2019s bullion reserves, following a rush to ship metal to New York earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The silver market \u201cis less liquid and roughly nine times smaller than gold\u2019s, amplifying price moves,\u201d Goldman Sachs Group Inc analysts wrote in a note. \u201cWithout a central bank bid to anchor silver prices, even a temporary pullback in investment flows could trigger a disproportionate correction, as it would also unwind the London tightness that drove much of the recent rally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four main precious metals have surged between 55% and 80% this year, in a rally that\u2019s dominated commodity markets. Gold\u2019s advance has been underpinned by central-bank buying, rising holdings in exchange-traded funds, and rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Demand for havens has also been aided by recurrent US-China trade tensions, threats to the Fed\u2019s independence, and a US government shutdown.<\/p>\n
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On Sunday, China urged Washington to halt tariff threats and return to talks, warning it would retaliate if the US pressed ahead with new measures. President Donald Trump \u2014 who mooted an extra 100% tariff on Chinese goods last week \u2014 struck a more conciliatory tone in weekend remarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust when geopolitical and trade risks were diminishing tailwinds for gold, we\u2019ve got this flare-up in US-China tensions,\u201d said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at Capital.com. Despite both sides\u2019 openness to talks, \u201ctrade volatility may go silent but it never disappears. That\u2019s a really good thing for gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traders also remain on edge ahead of the conclusion of the US administration\u2019s so-called Section 232 probe into critical minerals \u2014 which includes silver, as well as platinum and palladium. Fears the metals could be swept up in new levies have exacerbated market tightness, partly laying the foundations for the squeeze in silver after a major drawdown of freely available supplies in London.<\/p>\n
Spot silver was up 2.9% at $51.59 an ounce in London as of 1:36 p.m. local time, while gold traded near a fresh record of $4,085.98. Platinum and palladium both rose more than 3%.<\/p>\n
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index edged 0.2% higher, after gaining about 1% last week.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Yihui Xie, Preeti Soni and S’thembile Cele.<\/p>\n
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\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Silver hit the highest in decades as a historic short squeeze in London intensified, with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7904,28,1150,15027,124728,124729,3647,124727],"class_list":{"0":"post-221757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-london","11":"tag-precious-metals","12":"tag-silver-bars","13":"tag-silver-market","14":"tag-silver-prices","15":"tag-spot-silver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}