Key Highlights

  • Silver fell roughly 5% to $59 per ounce, its lowest since December, with the metal now down approximately 13% year to date and nearly 47% below its January record high reached before the Iran conflict.
  • A roughly 68% market-implied probability of a September Fed rate hike, up from 29% a week earlier, drove the primary selling pressure alongside a dollar index at its highest since March 2025.
  • Sharp declines in US technology stocks added a secondary selling catalyst as investors liquidated silver holdings to offset equity portfolio losses, compounding the macro-driven precious metals weakness.

Silver prices fell roughly 5% to $59 per ounce on Wednesday, reaching their lowest level since December as a confluence of macro and portfolio-driven selling pressures hit the metal simultaneously. The decline leaves silver approximately 13% lower year to date and nearly 47% below the January record high it reached before the Iran conflict's outbreak.

The primary drivers mirror those weighing on gold: dollar strength and rising Fed rate hike expectations. The September rate hike probability's jump from roughly 29% a week ago to approximately 68% raises the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding precious metals, while the dollar index at its highest since March 2025 reduces demand from non-US buyers and applies mechanical downward pressure on dollar-denominated commodity prices.

Silver's steeper percentage decline relative to gold reflects an additional and distinct selling pressure source. Sharp declines in US technology stocks on Wednesday prompted institutional investors to liquidate silver holdings to generate cash needed to offset equity portfolio losses, a pattern that characterises forced cross-asset selling in sessions where equity drawdowns are large enough to trigger portfolio rebalancing. This mechanism creates selling pressure in precious metals that is entirely disconnected from silver's fundamental supply-demand dynamics.

Silver's near-47% decline from its January record high is a more extreme correction than gold's roughly 20% pullback from its own peak, reflecting silver's greater industrial demand component, which makes it more sensitive to growth and inflation dynamics, and its historically higher volatility relative to gold across the precious metals complex.