NEW YORK, Feb 4, 2026, 10:05 (EST) — Regular session.
- Spot silver rebounds nearly 6% to about $90 an ounce after last week’s rout
- CME margin hikes and the Fed chair shake-up keep leverage on the run
- Focus shifts to ECB and BoE decisions on Feb. 5, plus U.S. data disruptions
Silver climbed nearly 6% to around $90 an ounce on Wednesday as the metal extended a rebound from last week’s record slide. Spot gold was up 2% at $5,047 an ounce, holding above $5,000 after its sharp two-day jump. “We expect elevated volatility to continue in the near term, but stabilization should return once the market finds its footing,” said Joshua Chim, general manager at online broker FSMone. 1
The swing matters now because the market is still working through forced selling after CME Group lifted margin requirements — the cash collateral traders must post to hold futures positions. The selloff followed President Donald Trump’s announcement that Kevin Warsh would be his pick to lead the Federal Reserve, a choice investors saw as tilting policy toward a smaller Fed balance sheet and tighter financial conditions for non-yielding assets like precious metals. 2
Silver’s collapse also exposed how fast speculative money can turn. The metal hit an all-time high of $121.6 on Jan. 29, then shed more than a quarter of its value the next day as technical selling and stop-loss orders fed on each other. “There’s been a massive, massive retail frenzy getting into these markets,” said Saxo Bank commodity strategist Ole Hansen, who said the search for a floor hinges on China demand and calmer trading. 3
On Monday, trading remained choppy after Friday’s 27% rout, with silver last down 5.56% at $79.92 an ounce after earlier sliding as low as $71.33. Dealers said pressure on a number of silver futures funds in China added to the rout late last week, and the selling intensified after CME raised margins across several precious-metal contracts. 4
Volatility stayed at the center of the story. Ten-day realized volatility in silver hit 186% on Friday, according to Pepperstone strategist Chris Weston. Realized volatility is a backward-looking measure of how big the day-to-day moves have been, and it underscores why liquidity can vanish quickly when positions are leveraged. 5
But the rebound is fragile. Some analysts have argued a more fundamentally supported silver price sits in the $60–$70 range, with technical support near $66 using Fibonacci levels — a common chart-based method for gauging support and resistance. “There’s not much I can add to my warnings about how silver is always a death trap,” StoneX analyst Rhona O’Connell said. 6
The slump has already rippled beyond trading desks. Shares of Danish jeweller Pandora jumped as much as 10% on Monday as the plunge in silver eased concerns about raw-material costs, with Jyske Bank analyst Janne Vincent Kjaer citing the spike in silver prices as a key market worry in recent months. Pandora is due to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 5. 7
Traders also have central banks on the calendar. The ECB’s Governing Council wraps up its monetary policy meeting on Thursday, Feb. 5, followed by a press conference, and the Bank of England is due to publish its policy summary and minutes at midday London time the same day. 8
In the United States, the usual macro signposts are less clear. The Labor Department’s monthly employment report for January was pulled from Friday’s schedule during the brief federal shutdown, and officials have not set a new publication date. 9
A weaker-than-expected ADP report showed U.S. private payrolls rose by 22,000 in January, though markets barely reacted and economists often treat the series as a noisy guide to government data. The bigger issue for rates traders is when the official jobs report reappears — and whether gaps in data flow keep volatility in currencies, yields and metals elevated. 10
For silver, the next tests are simple: can it hold above $90 without another round of margin-driven selling, and do central banks and delayed U.S. data keep safe-haven flows in play. Markets will be watching the ECB press conference and the BoE decision on Thursday, Feb. 5, along with any update on the rescheduled U.S. jobs report.
