NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 19:58 ET — Market closed.
- Sprott Physical Silver Trust units last closed down about 6.2% at $23.65, tracking a sharp drop in silver.
- The trust ended Wednesday at a roughly 3.8% discount to net asset value, after a steep one-day NAV decline.
- Traders are watching whether higher futures margin requirements and early-year rebalancing keep pressure on silver-linked funds.
Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV) last closed down 6.2% at $23.65 on Wednesday, a steep drop that left the silver-linked fund under pressure going into the New Year. U.S. stock markets were closed on Thursday for the holiday and are due to reopen on Friday.
PSLV is a closed-end trust designed to give investors exposure to physical silver bullion without storing the metal themselves. Sprott said PSLV’s net asset value (NAV) — the per-unit value of the trust’s assets minus liabilities — was $24.59 as of Dec. 31, leaving the units at a 3.83% discount to NAV at the close; the trust reported 210.7 million ounces of silver held.
The move matters because silver’s rapid run-up has turned into fast, two-way trading, and funds like PSLV are often used as a liquid proxy when investors want in or out quickly. “Demand for metals is looking solid from both an industrial and retail perspective,” Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said in a Reuters report on year-end commodity performance. Reuters
Spot silver fell 7.1% to $71.04 an ounce on Dec. 31, Reuters reported, as investors consolidated gains after the metal’s outsized 2025 surge. The same report noted U.S. Treasury yields edged higher after jobless-claims data, keeping investors focused on rates and the dollar at the turn of the year.
Higher trading costs have also become a headline risk for precious metals. CME Group raised margin requirements on precious-metal futures for the second time in a week after sharp price swings, Bloomberg reported; margin is the cash collateral traders must post to hold leveraged futures positions.
The selloff was not confined to PSLV. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV), one of the largest U.S.-listed silver funds, was also sharply lower at the latest close, underscoring how closely these products track moves in the underlying metal.
Recent trading has been choppy even by commodity standards. PSLV rose to $25.22 on Dec. 30 before reversing to $23.65 a day later; the Dec. 31 session ranged from about $23.34 to $24.58, levels some traders will treat as near-term support and resistance.
Early 2026 trading has brought little clarity. Silver gained more than 1% as the new year opened, Bloomberg reported, but the same note flagged near-term risk from broad index rebalancing — the mechanical buying and selling by passive funds as portfolio weights reset.
Before Friday’s session begins, investors will be watching whether silver can stabilize above the $70-an-ounce area after Wednesday’s slide. For PSLV, the other focus is whether the discount to NAV narrows if retail demand returns, or widens if volatility keeps buyers on the sidelines.
Margin changes will also be in the spotlight as U.S. trading resumes. Higher required collateral can force some leveraged traders to reduce positions, which can amplify moves when liquidity is thin.
PSLV’s structure adds an extra wrinkle for short-term traders. Because it is a closed-end trust, its market price can trade above or below NAV, meaning returns can diverge from the metal itself when the premium/discount swings.
For longer-term holders, the debate remains the same: whether expected U.S. rate cuts and a softer dollar keep supporting non-yielding assets such as silver, or whether the year-end surge has pulled forward demand and left the market vulnerable to more sharp pullbacks when positioning shifts.
