London, April 24, 2026, 11:04 BST
Silver slipped for another session on Friday, pressured by gains in the dollar and Treasury yields, plus a spike in oil that revived inflation worries. Spot silver dropped 0.7% to $74.88 an ounce at 0938 GMT. Gold and platinum moved lower too, but palladium managed to tick up.
Silver’s getting tugged in both directions right now—hard assets are in demand as conflict heats up, but rising yields are squeezing anything that doesn’t offer interest. Brent crude pushed up to $107 a barrel, notching an 18% weekly gain, with the Strait of Hormuz still choked off, according to Reuters.
Silver hovered around $74.75 on the XAG/USD feed, trading between $73.96 and $75.94 for the day. After a steep pullback from the highs seen in January, prices now sit just above Thursday’s lower end.
Independent analyst Ross Norman flagged the Strait of Hormuz as an “oil pinch point” in comments to Reuters. Gold, he said, has been “struggling to get upside momentum”—a sentiment traders are carrying over to silver, too, since both metals typically fall out of favor when higher yields in cash and bonds pull investors elsewhere. Reuters
CME Group lowered the initial margin requirement on COMEX 5000 Silver futures, dropping it to 11% from 14%, according to a clearing advisory. Margin represents the collateral traders need to maintain their futures positions. With this reduction, trading costs come down. It may also spur more two-way action, especially in a choppy market.
In India, a major spot and investment hub for silver, May silver futures on the Multi Commodity Exchange slipped nearly 1% early, landing at 239,200 rupees per kg. Manoj Kumar Jain from Prithvi Finmart pointed to the dollar, oil prices, and continued U.S.-Iran tensions as the main factors likely to keep gold and silver prices swinging.
Silver may trail gold if industrial demand remains soft, according to Jigar Trivedi, senior research analyst at IndusInd Securities, Mint reported. Kaveri More of Choice Broking described the short-term outlook for both metals as moderately bearish, pointing to oil prices, inflation concerns, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.
Producer numbers are telling the story of just how much the rally has trickled down. Hindustan Zinc, the country’s top zinc player and a notable silver proxy, reported a 67.6% surge in quarterly profit, lifted by both stronger metal prices and higher production. Reuters noted the company takes in a big chunk of its revenue from silver.
The structural story isn’t going anywhere. Both the Silver Institute and Metals Focus anticipate the global silver market will record a sixth consecutive deficit in 2026, forecasting a shortfall of 46.3 million ounces. “Risks of another liquidity squeeze this year remain,” Metals Focus managing director Philip Newman said. Reuters
But that doesn’t guarantee a steady price floor. Should oil slip, the dollar pause, and yields dip, silver might bounce back fast. On the other hand, if the conflict stretches out and industrial appetite cools, traders could ignore the supply shortfall for now and dump the metal all over again.
Traders are eyeing silver to see if it sticks above the mid-$70s mark, and whether CME’s margin cut ends up drawing in new liquidity. Crude prices are also under the microscope, with inflation risk refusing to drop out of sight as long as oil stays elevated. Any clear move could show up first not in silver, but in oil tanker rates, bonds, or dollar action.
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