By Andrew Moran
Silver prices continued their meteoric ascent at the end of the holiday-shortened trading week as the white metal touched $100 for the first time.
On the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, silver futures surged $3.65, or 3.8 percent, to $100.02 per ounce at 10:51 a.m. (EST) on Jan. 23.
The precious metal is on track for a weekly gain of about 10 percent, adding to its year-to-date increase of almost 40 percent.
While silver maintains a monetary appeal like gold, it also possesses industrial demand, says Ole Hansen, commodity strategist at Saxo Bank.
“That dual role can amplify both upside momentum and downside risk,” Hansen said in a Jan. 23 note.
“For now, physical demand signals remain robust, particularly in China, where local futures prices continue to command a premium of more than US$12 per ounce over London prices.”
With the growing risk of demand destruction—buyers reduce consumption and substitute the product for something cheaper—there could be a rotation back to gold, he added.
Gold prices have set a bullseye on $5,000 per ounce.
The yellow metal increased by $46.30, or 0.9 percent, to $4,959.70 an ounce.
Gold is poised for a weekly jump of around 7.5 percent, lifting this year’s gains to about 14 percent.
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Gold and silver are finding further support from a weaker U.S. dollar, expectations of Federal Reserve policy easing, and central bank buying.
A lower greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for foreign investors to buy.
While the Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged next week, investors are penciling in at least two rate cuts this year, according to CME FedWatch Tool data.
A falling rate environment diminishes the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion—a boon for the metal commodities.
Central banks’ appetite for gold has added another layer to the bull run.
Recent data suggest that central banks purchased a net 45 tons in November, led by the National Bank of Poland.
According to the World Gold Council, gold purchases by these institutions totaled 297 tons in the first 11 months of 2025, slightly lower than in previous years.
While there has been talk of de-dollarization adding fuel to the rally, some strategists say there is not enough data to support the idea.
“We would again conclude that de-dollarisation is going to take some time and that if the dollar is to come lower this year, it will be driven by lower U.S. rates and increased foreign hedging of U.S. assets,” ING strategists said in a Jan. 16 note.
Earlier this week, U.S. stocks endured a sharp selloff, partly due to President Donald Trump’s tariff threats in his pursuit of purchasing Greenland, prompting market watchers to call it a “Sell America” trade.
Wall Street rebounded when Trump ruled out using military force in the Danish territory, canceled planned tariffs, and announced a framework with NATO during his trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.
But Jim Nelson, an analyst at Euro Pacific Asset Management, warns that the “Sell America” dynamic will persist this year.
“The key point, in our view, is that this combination of shocks is not likely to be an isolated occurrence in 2026 or beyond,” Nelson said in a Jan. 21 research note.
“For weeks, realized volatility across the major U.S. risk complex had been compressed to unusually low levels, while positioning across many asset classes reflected a widespread assumption that policy shocks would remain containable.”
The rest of the metals market is also seeing a sea of green as the trading week closes.
Copper prices rose 2 percent. Platinum and palladium surged 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Metal commodities are ripe for a vicious pullback due to the market’s extreme overbought condition, according to Tom Essaye, president and co-founder of the Sevens Research Report.
“The trend remains decidedly higher with multiple tailwinds supporting the bull case for gold and silver,” Essaye said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.
“However, precious metals remain technically overbought amid an increasingly crowded long side of the market, leaving the risk of volatile pullbacks historically elevated.”
Relative strength indexes—a popular indicator for traders to measure whether an asset is overbought or oversold—are historically high for all of the metals.
