New York, January 21, 2026, 17:07 EST — Trading after hours.
Spot silver (XAG/USD) slipped in late U.S. trading Wednesday, retreating from earlier gains this week. It last traded down 1.4% at $93.12 an ounce, having fluctuated between $90.26 and $95.61 during the session. 1
The pullback comes at a time when silver is far from a dormant metal. It’s drawing safe-haven interest amid political noise and industrial demand as growth shows strength — those forces are now intersecting.
Spot silver slipped 3.6% to $91.17 earlier in the session, after soaring to a record $95.87 on Tuesday. Investors pared back bets following U.S. President Donald Trump’s retreat from some of his toughest Greenland-related tariff threats. “You had a liquidation event,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures. ANZ commodity strategist Soni Kumari noted that a jump to triple-digit silver prices remains “quite possible,” though she cautioned it wouldn’t be a straight climb. 2
Markets turned on a dime. The dollar jumped sharply versus the euro and Swiss franc after Trump announced that the U.S. had agreed on a framework for a future Greenland deal with NATO and would scrap the threatened tariffs. StoneX’s Matt Weller described the move as sparking a “relief rally” in risk assets. Still, EU leaders are pushing ahead with an emergency summit scheduled for Thursday. 3
Silver proxies followed the move lower. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) ended the day down 1.66% at $83.97, then nudged up 0.53% to $84.41 in after-hours trading. U.S. Comex silver futures, which set prices for future delivery, dropped 2.1% to $92.66. The dollar index, measuring the greenback against other currencies, ticked higher by 0.16% to 98.60. Meanwhile, the U.S. 10-year yield dipped to 4.251%. 4
Physical markets told a different story. In India, silver premiums hit as much as $8 an ounce above official domestic prices. Traders are betting the government might hike import duties to rein in imports before the Feb. 1 budget announcement. The rupee touched a record low at 91.7425 per dollar. “People are speculating that the government may raise import duties on gold and silver,” said Chanda Venkatesh, managing director of bullion merchant CapsGold. 5
Silver swings between a safe haven one moment and a growth asset the next. That back-and-forth fuels sharp moves whenever the trade gets crowded and the headlines shift.
Yet those very headlines that drove the rally could just as easily reverse it. A further easing of tariff threats or continued strength in the dollar might trigger sharp profit-taking in silver, particularly after its recent record surge.
Rate expectations are creating another crack. If the Fed takes a more hawkish route, the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding metals will rise, despite ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Attention turns to the Federal Reserve’s meeting on January 27–28. The policy statement drops January 28 at 2 p.m., followed by a press conference at 2:30 p.m., per the Fed’s official calendar. 6
At the moment, silver is moving as if the market is voting on what Washington will do next — and just how much of this week’s panic will linger.
