New York, January 9, 2026, 06:30 EST — Premarket
The iShares Silver Trust (SLV), a heavily traded proxy for silver prices, fell 1.8% in the last session, ending at $69.71. The slide followed a sharp pullback in silver as investors positioned for forced selling tied to annual commodity index rebalancing.
The timing matters because the rebalance is mechanical. Funds that track broad commodity benchmarks have to reset weights after big moves, and that can swamp normal flows for a few days, regardless of investor views on the metal.
A wave of bullion-linked selling valued at more than $10 billion is now hitting the market’s tape, the Financial Times reported. Commodity index funds tracking the Bloomberg Commodity Index are rebalancing between Jan. 8 and 15, with JPMorgan estimating about $6.1 billion of silver and $5.6 billion of gold will be sold.
Spot silver fell as much as 5% to $73.91 an ounce on Thursday before trimming losses, Mining.com reported. Citigroup estimates about $6.8 billion in Comex silver futures could be sold — roughly 12% of open interest, meaning outstanding contracts — and strategist Kenny Hu said: “I’ve been running this process for many years, and we haven’t seen any outsized flow like this one.” MINING.COM
At 9:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, silver was $74.16 per ounce, down $2.88 from the prior day, Fortune reported. It was still far above year-ago levels after a blistering 2025 rally that pulled in speculative money and left the market jumpy to sudden flow-driven shocks.
SLV is backed by physical silver rather than shares in mining companies. iShares data showed the trust held 521.34 million ounces of silver (about 16,215 tonnes) as of Jan. 8, with net asset value — the metal value per share — at $68.17.
Silver miners were mixed in early U.S. trading indications. First Majestic Silver was last down about 0.2%, Pan American Silver slipped about 0.5% and Hecla Mining fell about 1.7%, while Wheaton Precious Metals rose about 0.6%, according to market data.
But the setup cuts both ways. Broker XTB warned the rebalance could translate into roughly $4 billion to $7 billion of silver selling in the Jan. 8–14 window, lifting volatility, with a firmer dollar another potential headwind if it keeps squeezing metals priced in U.S. currency.
Traders now watch whether the forced selling exhausts itself without breaking the broader uptrend, and whether ETF flows stabilise as the roll progresses. IG said the key roll window for passive funds runs through Jan. 14, after which markets typically pivot back to demand and interest-rate expectations.
