Argor-Heraeus' CEO Robin Kolvenbach holds one kilo bars of silver and gold at the plant of refiner and bar manufacturer Argor-Heraeus in Mendrisio, Switzerland, July 13, 2022. Denis Balibouse | Reuters
Gold and silver prices plunged Friday, as President Donald Trump's nomination for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, appeared to relieve concerns about the central bank's independence and sent the dollar soaring. Spot silver was down 28% at $83.45 an ounce, trading near its lows of the day. Silver futures plummeted 31.4% to settle at $78.53, marking its worst day since March 1980.
Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Spot silver
Meanwhile, spot gold shed around 9% to trade at $4,895.22 an ounce. Gold futures dropped 11.4% to settle at $4,745.10.
Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Spot gold
The sharp moves down were initially triggered by reports of Warsh's nomination. However, they gained steam in afternoon U.S. trading as investors who piled into the metals raced to book profits. Metals were also under pressure as the dollar spiked higher, making it more expensive for foreign investors to buy gold and silver and spoiling the theory that metals would replace the greenback as the globe's reserve currency. The dollar index last traded around 0.8% higher. "This is getting crazy," said Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. "Most of this is probably 'forced selling.' This has been the hottest asset for day traders and other short-term traders recently. So, there has been some leverage built up in silver. With the huge decline today, the margin calls went out."
Trump picks Warsh
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett had been the favorite to replace Powell for some time, but Warsh became the front-runner in prediction markets in recent days. In a note on Friday morning, Evercore ISI's Krishna Guha said the market was "trading Warsh hawkish." "The Warsh pick should help stabilize the dollar some and reduce (though not eliminate) the asymmetric risk of deep extended dollar weakness by challenging debasement trades – which is also why gold and silver are sharply lower," the firm's vice chairman said. "But, we advise against overdoing the Warsh hawkish trade across asset markets – and even see some risk of a whipsaw. We see Warsh as a pragmatist not an ideological hawk in the tradition of the independent conservative central banker." Claudio Wewel, FX strategist at J. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Friday that a "perfect storm" of geopolitical tensions had helped precious metals move higher this year, pointing to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Washington's threats to use military force in Greenland and Iran. More recently, he said, speculation over who would be nominated as the next Fed chair had been influencing metals markets. "The market has clearly been pricing the risk of a much more dovish contender, that's been largely helping the gold price along with other precious metal prices. Over the last 24 hours, the news flow has changed a little bit," Wewel said, prior to Trump's announcement.
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