Spot Silver Hits Fresh Record After Surpassing October Peak

Silver jumped to a record, surpassing a peak set during a historic squeeze in the London market in October.

Silver stocks jumped in Friday trading. First Majestic rose 9%; Silvercorp Metals, Pan American Silver rose 6%; Fortuna rose 2%.

Spot prices rose as much as 2.6% to above $54.76 an ounce. The white metal has been supported by rising hopes of a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut in December, inflows into bullion-backed exchange-traded funds and ongoing supply tightness.

Friday also saw erratic price moves and thin liquidity in the silver market, after a chaotic hours-long halt to trading in futures on the CME’s Comex Exchange. By early morning US-time, most trading operations were operational again.

Silver’s new high comes just over a month after a severe supply squeeze in the dominant silver trading hub in London in October, which sent prices soaring above levels in Shanghai and New York. While the arrival of nearly 54 million troy ounces has eased that squeeze, the market still remains markedly tight with the cost of borrowing the metal over one month hovering well above its normal level.

The flows into the London market have now put pressure on other hubs, including in China. Silver inventories in warehouses linked to the Shanghai Futures Exchange recently hit their lowest level since 2015, while Shanghai Gold Exchange volumes are back to the smallest in more than nine years, according to bourse and brokerage data.

Traders are also monitoring any potential tariff on silver after the precious metal was added to the US Geological Survey list of critical minerals in November. While 75 million ounces have left the vaults of the Comex futures exchange in New York since early October, fears of a sudden premium for US silver have caused some traders to hesitate before shipping metal out of the country.

Spot silver was  higher at  an ounce as of  in New York. Spot gold rose  to  and ounce.