As of Friday, November 29, 2025, silver has surged to a fresh all‑time high above $56 per ounce, while gold is holding comfortably over $4,200, extending one of the strongest precious‑metal rallies in decades. The move is being powered by a powerful combination of aggressive Federal Reserve rate‑cut expectations, structural supply shortages in silver, and relentless investor demand for safe‑haven assets and green‑energy metals. [1]
Below is a detailed look at what happened on November 29, how it ties into this year’s spectacular run, and what analysts say could come next for silver and gold.
Silver Price Today: New All‑Time High Above $56
On November 29, spot silver prices pushed to around $56.7 per ounce, setting a new record and gaining roughly 6% in a single session. Over the month of November, silver’s gains reached the mid‑teens in percentage terms, with some market trackers putting the monthly rise at about 16–17%. [2]
In rupee terms, silver’s earlier rally in October had already smashed local records. In India — the world’s largest consumer of silver — prices spiked in mid‑October to roughly ₹170,000 per kilogram, an increase of around 85% from the start of the year, before consolidating and then pushing back toward new peaks in late November. [3]
Across global benchmarks, silver has almost doubled in just 11 months. One recent analysis estimates that over the last year, gold is up around 59%, while silver has jumped close to 87%. For 2025 year‑to‑date, gold is up about 60%, but silver is ahead with gains of roughly 94%, and is now trading near an all‑time high around $56.4 per ounce. [4]
This explosive move caps a longer uptrend. According to commodities commentary from Reuters, spot silver has been climbing since October 2023, leaping about 163% from a low near $20.7 to a record around $54.4 in mid‑November, before this latest breakout above that level. [5]
Gold Price Today: Firm Above $4,200 but Still Chasing Silver
Gold may not be stealing the headlines like silver, but it is having a stellar year of its own.
On November 29, spot gold traded around $4,210 per ounce, marking a two‑week high and extending a run of four straight daily gains. For the week, gold was up more than 3.5%, with monthly gains over 5%. [6]
That comes on top of an already remarkable rally. Gold hit a record high of about $4,381 per ounce on October 20 and, despite a pullback, has mostly held above the psychologically important $4,000 level. Reuters and bank research put gold’s gains this year at roughly 59–60%, on track for its strongest annual performance since the late 1970s. [7]
In relative terms, though, gold is playing second fiddle to silver:
- Since October 2023, silver has risen ~163%, versus gold’s ~142% over the same period. [8]
- Over the last 12 months, gold is up about 59%; silver has surged about 87%. [9]
That performance gap is precisely why some analysts say silver — historically nicknamed the “devil’s metal” for its wild swings — is now the true star of the precious‑metals complex. [10]
Fed Rate‑Cut Hopes: The Main Fuel Behind the Rally
If you zoom in on the last week of November, the Federal Reserve is the central character in this story.
Several recent data points and comments have convinced markets that another U.S. interest‑rate cut in December is highly likely:
- Softer‑than‑expected U.S. retail sales and still‑benign producer prices reinforced the idea that the Fed can ease again without reigniting inflation. [11]
- Multiple Fed officials — including Governor Christopher Waller and New York Fed President John Williams — have delivered notably dovish remarks, emphasizing a slowing economy and a weakening labor market. [12]
- Traders are now putting the probability of a December rate cut around 85–87%, up sharply from roughly 30–50% only a week earlier, according to derivatives‑market pricing cited by news reports. [13]
Lower interest rates typically reduce the opportunity cost of holding non‑yielding assets like gold and silver. They also tend to weigh on the U.S. dollar and bond yields, creating an environment in which precious metals historically thrive.
News outlets following the November 29 session described the move in simple terms: spot gold climbed about 1% to a two‑week high, while silver exploded to a new record around $56.8 per ounce, up roughly 6% on the day and more than 16% for the month, as rate‑cut bets hardened. [14]
CME Outage and Market Microstructure: A Turbo‑Boost for Metals
An under‑the‑radar factor behind the late‑November spike was a disruption at CME Group, the major futures exchange that lists gold and silver contracts.
On November 28, a technical outage temporarily halted cross‑asset trading on CME’s Globex platform. Once trading resumed, pent‑up orders and renewed focus on metals helped amplify the upside move in both gold and silver futures. Regional coverage summarising Reuters reports noted that gold for February delivery closed about 1.3% higher at $4,254.9 per ounce, while spot silver shot to a fresh record near $56.8. [15]
The episode underscored how thin liquidity and technical glitches can intensify price moves in markets that are already primed by macro headlines.
Silver’s Structural Supply Crunch: India, London Vaults and the Green‑Energy Boom
While Fed policy is the immediate catalyst, the deeper story for silver is structural shortage.
India’s demand surge
A detailed breakdown of the market draws a straight line from India’s demand to the latest price spikes:
- India consumes around 4,000 metric tons of silver per year, predominantly for jewellery, utensils and traditional ornaments. [16]
- After the monsoon and harvest season, rural households flush with cash often buy precious metals rather than piling money into banks. Analysts quoted in coverage say that gold — and increasingly silver — is the “first port of call” for post‑harvest savings. [17]
- This year, that seasonal buying coincided with the Diwali festival and a global supply squeeze, turbo‑charging prices just as Indian demand peaked. [18]
London vaults are being drained
On the supply side, data from the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) illustrate how tight the market has become:
- Silver holdings in London vaults have fallen by about one‑third over the past few years — from roughly 31,000 metric tons in mid‑2022 to around 22,000 tons by March 2025, their lowest level in years. [19]
- At one point in October, lease rates (the cost of borrowing silver) reportedly spiked to the equivalent of 200% per year on an overnight basis, a sign of extreme shortage. [20]
- Traders and analysts described situations where silver had to be air‑freighted rather than shipped to meet urgent delivery needs, highlighting how little flexible inventory was left. [21]
China, exports and “critical mineral” status
Recent reporting from India’s Financial Express adds another layer: China’s inventories and exports.
In October, Chinese silver exports climbed to a record level above 660 tonnes, even as domestic inventories dropped to their lowest point in a decade, driven by large shipments to London amid a supply squeeze. At the same time, the United States has formally classified silver as a “critical mineral”, reflecting concerns over long‑term availability and strategic importance. [22]
The result is a market where physical silver is genuinely scarce, and marginal changes in demand can cause outsized price moves.
Solar Panels, EVs and AI: The New Industrial Engine for Silver
Beyond jewellery and investment, industrial demand is quietly reshaping silver’s long‑term outlook.
A recent Reuters commodities column points out that:
- Global industrial demand for silver rose to around 689 million ounces in 2024, up from about 644 million the year before.
- Of that, roughly 244 million ounces were used in solar panels alone, up sharply from 192 million a year earlier and well over double 2020 levels. [23]
- The International Energy Agency expects about 4,000 GW of new solar capacity to be installed between 2024 and 2030. That trajectory could add roughly 150 million ounces of annual silver demand by 2030, just from solar, equivalent to about 13% of total physical demand in 2024. [24]
At the same time, the Silver Institute and industry analysts note that:
- Silver mine production has been trending lower for roughly a decade, particularly in Latin America. [25]
- The market deficit — the gap between total demand and supply — swelled to more than 500 million ounces in 2024, compared with a relatively tiny deficit the year before. [26]
- Much of the world’s silver is produced as a by‑product of mining other metals like copper, lead, zinc and gold. That makes it harder for producers to ramp up output purely in response to silver prices. [27]
Throw in cutting‑edge technologies and the story becomes even more dramatic. Analysts interviewed in coverage of this week’s moves noted that a typical electric vehicle currently uses around 25–50 grams of silver, but future solid‑state battery designs could require up to a kilogram per car if silver‑based chemistries are adopted at scale. [28]
When you combine green‑energy demand, EVs, data‑center and AI infrastructure, and a slow‑moving supply base, you get exactly the kind of structural deficit that can sustain high prices for years, even if speculative froth occasionally washes out.
Silver vs Gold: The Gold–Silver Ratio Still Favors Silver
One of the most closely watched metrics in precious‑metals circles is the gold–silver ratio — how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold.
- In January 2025, that ratio was above 100, meaning silver looked cheap relative to gold.
- By late November, with gold around $4,207 and silver near $55, the ratio had fallen to just under 77. [29]
Historically, the long‑term average is closer to 70. Analysts quoted in Indian media argue that a ratio still above that level implies further upside potential for silver if gold prices merely stabilize or edge higher from here. [30]
Reuters’ historical comparisons reinforce silver’s tendency to outperform in bull markets:
- During the 2008–2011 cycle, silver rallied about 431%, versus gold’s 168% rise in the same period. [31]
In other words, when gold is in a bull market, silver often behaves like a leveraged version of gold — with larger gains on the way up and sharper drops when sentiment turns.
Analyst Views: How Much Further Can Precious Metals Run?
On the gold side, major institutions are starting to bake sustained strength into their forecasts.
A new forecast from Deutsche Bank raised its 2026 gold price target to $4,450 per ounce, up from $4,000 previously. The bank now expects gold to trade in a broad $3,950–$4,950 range next year and has kept a 2027 target of $5,150, citing a “positive structural picture” driven by: [32]
- Persistent central‑bank buying,
- Ongoing ETF inflows, and
- Tight physical markets across silver, platinum and palladium, which enhance those metals’ sensitivity to gold’s moves.
However, Deutsche Bank also flags key risks: gold’s increasingly positive correlation with risk assets, the possibility that the Fed delivers less policy easing than markets expect, and the chance that official‑sector buyers could slow their gold purchases. [33]
On the silver side, strategists cited across MarketWirePro, Reuters and Indian media see a similar blend of bullish structure and short‑term fragility:
- The market is expected to remain in deficit for a fifth consecutive year in 2025, with lease rates and physical tightness suggesting little slack in the system. [34]
- Technical analysts mention that silver’s price charts have turned decisively bullish in recent weeks, attracting more trend‑following and chart‑driven traders to the long side. [35]
- At the same time, the gold–silver ratio remains above its long‑run average, leaving room for silver to continue closing the valuation gap with gold. [36]
None of this guarantees a straight line higher — but it helps explain why headlines now talk about silver having “further to run” even after record highs.
Risks to Watch: “Devil’s Metal” Volatility and Policy Surprises
For all the bullishness, silver’s old nickname — the “devil’s metal” — is back in circulation for a reason. [37]
Key risks include:
- Extreme volatility: Silver’s smaller market size (roughly a tenth of gold’s by value) means even modest flows can trigger sharp short‑term spikes and just as brutal corrections. Past cycles have seen multi‑digit percentage drops in days. [38]
- Fed disappointment: If the Federal Reserve cuts less than markets are currently pricing in, or signals a quicker end to easing in 2026, real yields and the dollar could rise, pressuring precious metals. This is one of the main downside scenarios highlighted by bank research. [39]
- Macro shocks: A faster‑than‑expected global recovery or a sharp rebound in risk assets could shift capital away from safe havens, while a deep recession could temporarily hit industrial demand for silver even as investors seek safety. [40]
- Positioning and leverage: Leveraged futures and options positions can force liquidations during bouts of volatility, amplifying both rallies and crashes — something the recent CME outage reinforced as a point of vulnerability. [41]
For individual investors, that means position sizing and risk management matter as much as the macro story. This article is for information only and should not be taken as investment advice; anyone considering exposure to gold or silver should evaluate their own risk tolerance, time horizon and, ideally, speak with a qualified financial adviser.
References
1. www.fxleaders.com, 2. www.fxleaders.com, 3. marketwirepro.com, 4. www.financialexpress.com, 5. www.reuters.com, 6. www.fxleaders.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.financialexpress.com, 10. marketwirepro.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. www.fxleaders.com, 15. www.idnfinancials.com, 16. marketwirepro.com, 17. marketwirepro.com, 18. marketwirepro.com, 19. marketwirepro.com, 20. marketwirepro.com, 21. marketwirepro.com, 22. www.financialexpress.com, 23. www.reuters.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. marketwirepro.com, 26. www.reuters.com, 27. www.reuters.com, 28. marketwirepro.com, 29. www.financialexpress.com, 30. www.financialexpress.com, 31. www.reuters.com, 32. www.reuters.com, 33. www.reuters.com, 34. www.financialexpress.com, 35. www.fxleaders.com, 36. www.financialexpress.com, 37. marketwirepro.com, 38. www.reuters.com, 39. www.reuters.com, 40. www.reuters.com, 41. www.idnfinancials.com
