Silver breaks $80 then tumbles nearly 8% as precious-metals rally stalls

Silver breaks $80 then tumbles nearly 8% as precious-metals rally stalls

NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 11:03 ET

  • Silver fell 7.9% after touching a record $83.62 an ounce earlier Monday.
  • Gold slid 3.6% from Friday’s record; platinum and palladium dropped double digits.
  • Investors took profits ahead of Federal Reserve minutes due Tuesday.

Silver prices slid sharply on Monday after a frenzied rally pushed the metal above $80 an ounce and to a record intraday high. Reuters

The retreat matters because silver’s surge has been one of the biggest across major commodities this year and has pulled other metals to fresh highs, before profit-taking set in. Reuters

The selloff comes as markets head into the final days of the year with holiday-thinned trading, which can exacerbate price swings. Reuters

Spot silver was down 7.9% at $72.87 per ounce by 9:57 a.m. ET, off a record $83.62 hit earlier in the session, according to a Reuters report. Reuters

Spot gold, traded for immediate delivery, fell 3.6% to $4,367.97 an ounce after hitting a record $4,549.71 on Friday. Reuters

U.S. gold futures for February delivery — contracts that lock in a price for a later date — also lost 3.6% to $4,387.40. Reuters

Platinum dropped 12% to $2,157.09 an ounce after touching a record $2,478.50 earlier in the session, while palladium plunged 15% to $1,634.04. Reuters

“All the metals moved up to recent and all-time highs. We are seeing profit-taking pullbacks off of those spectacularly high levels,” said David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures. Reuters

Profit-taking refers to traders selling to lock in gains after a sharp run-up.

Gold has risen about 65% in 2025, while platinum and palladium are also on track for annual gains, Reuters reported. Reuters

Silver’s roughly 150% jump has been driven by its critical mineral status — a label for materials considered important to industry — along with supply shortages and rising industrial and investor demand, Reuters said. Reuters

Gold is widely viewed as a safe-haven asset in periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, and it tends to benefit when interest rates fall because it does not pay interest. Reuters

Traders are pricing in two U.S. rate cuts in 2026 and are watching the Fed’s December meeting minutes on Tuesday for clues on the policy path, the Reuters report said. Reuters

Geopolitics stayed in focus after President Donald Trump said on Sunday he and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy were closer to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, and as Trump prepared to push for progress on a Gaza ceasefire when he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later on Monday. Reuters

In U.S. equities, the Dow was down 0.14%, the S&P 500 was off 0.32% and the Nasdaq was down 0.61% in early trading, while materials shares slipped as precious-metal miners fell, according to a separate Reuters market report. Reuters

Trading volumes are expected to remain light in the holiday-affected week, with U.S. markets closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day. Reuters

Stock Market Today

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    December 29, 2025, 12:00 PM EST. Sam Walton engineered a guardianship of his Walmart stake by placing the shares in a trust and in family-controlled entities rather than in his children's names. According to Miami attorney Jose Ferrer, the Walton Family Holdings Trust and Walton Enterprises ensured that ownership would stay with the family, regardless of marriages or divorces. The approach kept Walmart stock out of spouses' reach and prevented splits that could threaten control of the company. The strategy contrasts with how fortunes like the Vanderbilts were dispersed over time. Today, Rob, Jim and Alice Walton remain in the billionaire ranks, with the broader heir group controlling roughly $440 billion, per Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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