Silver and Gold Fall While Stocks Trade Volatility – Asia Market Wrap
Following Friday’s sharp market reversal, assets that had done the best in January faced severe selling pressure, which caused gold and silver to continue their decline alongside stocks.
After rising to about $5,600 an ounce in January, the yellow metal fell as much as 6.3% to briefly trade below $4,600 on Monday. After a historic 26% decline on Friday, silver fell as much as 12%. The two-day slide in Asian markets was the largest since early April, and futures predicted more losses for Wall Street and European benchmarks.
Monday’s market movements signal to rising volatility following a sustained rise in precious metals and multiple record highs in shares, fuelled by billions of dollars in AI investment. At the same time, investors are reevaluating valuations and adjusting expectations for monetary policy under a probable Warsh-led Fed, despite Trump’s repeated promises to lower interest rates.
The MSCI All Country World Index, one of the broadest indicators of equity markets, declined 0.4%, while the Asian benchmark dropped 2%. South Korea’s Kospi, a benchmark for the AI sector, fell 4%, while Nasdaq 100 Index futures fell more than 1% on concerns over high valuations.
In political news, the US government went into partial shutdown Saturday while waiting for the House to ratify a financing deal negotiated by Trump and Democrats in response to a national outcry over Border Patrol agents’ killing of a US citizen in Minneapolis. Crude oil fell 6.3%. But the market’s focus was primarily on gold and silver.
