New York, January 5, 2026, 17:06 (EST) — After-hours
iShares Silver Trust (SLV) rose 5.1% in regular trading to close at $69.08 on Monday and was last up about 0.5% in after-hours at $69.40, tracking a sharp rise in silver prices. The bullion-linked trust traded between $68.52 and $70.60 during the session, with about 100.8 million shares changing hands.
SLV is a silver-tracking trust that trades like a stock, making it a quick read on investor demand for the metal. Many investors use it as a proxy for silver exposure without trading futures — standardized contracts to buy or sell a commodity at a later date, typically using margin.
The move matters now because silver enters 2026 after an outsized 2025 run, leaving prices sensitive to sudden risk-off moves and profit-taking. Rate expectations are also back in play early in the year, and precious metals tend to react quickly when traders reprice the path for U.S. interest rates.
Spot silver rose 5.2% to $76.37 an ounce by 1:38 p.m. ET as U.S. strikes in Venezuela revived demand for safe-haven assets — holdings investors favor when uncertainty rises. “The situation around Venezuela has clearly reactivated safe-haven demand,” said Alexander Zumpfe, a precious metals trader at Heraeus Metals Germany; silver rose 147% in 2025, helped by its designation as a U.S. critical mineral and a market deficit, when demand outstrips supply. Reuters
BlackRock’s iShares says SLV is designed to provide exposure to the day-to-day movement of silver bullion and offers “convenient, cost-effective access to physical silver.” The trust’s reference benchmark is the LBMA Silver Price, a daily pricing benchmark for the metal. BlackRock
Silver does not pay interest, so it often benefits when investors expect lower rates and softer yields, which reduce the opportunity cost of holding metal. When geopolitical risk rises at the same time, the demand impulse can be sharper — and the pullbacks can be abrupt.
Technically, SLV’s push above $70 at the session high puts that level back on traders’ screens as near-term resistance. The day’s low near $68.50 is the first support zone many will watch if momentum cools.
The risk is that the safe-haven bid fades quickly if headlines out of Venezuela soften or if U.S. data forces markets to trim rate-cut bets, lifting yields and the dollar. After a steep move, silver-linked products can retrace fast as short-term traders take profits.
The next catalyst is Friday’s U.S. employment report for December, due at 08:30 a.m. ET, a release that can swing rate expectations and spill directly into silver and SLV pricing.
