Gold and Silver Market Notes

Earlier this year, Tether invested $150 million in Gold.com, acquiring roughly a 12% stake in the company and forming a strategic partnership focused on connecting physical precious metals with digital finance. Most of the attention around the deal naturally centered…

Switzerland’s August data delivered one of the most interesting new datapoints from the physical gold market. Switzerland exported 156.5 tonnes of gold in August — 65% more than in July. The country is one of the world’s most important gold…

Gold imports fell 58% year over year in August, while silver imports jumped 127%. Gold imports dropped to roughly $2.3 billion. Silver imports, meanwhile, more than doubled from a year earlier. Same country. Same month. Two precious metals. Completely opposite…

Gold mines produced 966 tonnes in Q2 — the highest second-quarter output on record. At first glance, you might expect record mine production to mean significantly more gold coming onto the market. It didn’t. Total gold supply was almost unchanged…

After a rate hike, we would normally expect at least some short-term pressure on precious metals. Higher rates increase the yield available on cash and bonds and often support the dollar — a combination that usually does not help gold…

The value of India’s silver imports jumped 127% year over year in August to $1.02 billion. That is no small move, and it is difficult to ignore. India has long been one of the most important physical precious metals markets,…

That is roughly 16 percentage points below the five-year average for this time of year. On its own, that does not mean Europe is heading into another energy crisis. But it does mean something else: Europe is entering the coming…

Today, attention has shifted directly to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s main oil export hub on the Red Sea. The Houthis say they attacked Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu using missiles and drones. Saudi Arabia has not yet publicly confirmed that the…

Gold is not just seeing renewed interest in Western ETFs. In August, Shanghai gold futures activity rose 48% month over month, while COMEX derivatives activity increased by 28%. What makes this interesting is that stronger interest in gold is not…

Silver is trading around $64.60, but that number looks very different when we compare it with January’s record of $121.62. That means silver is still almost 47% below this year’s high. That is a huge move for any major asset.…

Markets are heading into today’s Fed decision pricing roughly a 92% probability of at least a 25-basis-point rate hike. At that point, the hike itself may actually be the least interesting part of the decision. Markets trade expectations, not headlines.…

Silver open interest stands at 103,250 contracts. At 5,000 oz per contract, that represents more than 516 million ounces of silver in nominal futures exposure. That is a remarkable number on its own. But it is important to remember that…

Silver traded around $62.70 yesterday. A year ago, it was around $42.68. So even after the latest selloff, silver is still roughly 47% higher than it was a year ago. That is the part I think gets lost very quickly…

Europe is starting to talk about AI infrastructure differently. Not just as a technology race. But as a strategic necessity. Christine Lagarde recently pointed out that the U.S. has roughly 75% of global AI computing capacity, while Europe has only…

The eight largest short traders on COMEX now hold positions equal to 51.3% of total open interest. A week earlier, that figure was roughly 50.6%. And the four largest short traders alone account for 34.9% of open interest. The move…

84% of central banks expect gold to make up a larger share of global reserves five years from now than it does today. Last year, that figure was 76%. To me, that shift is more interesting than the number itself.…

The most interesting number in the oil market today, in my view, isn’t the price of Brent itself. It’s the gap between what the market will pay for barrels that can still reach buyers relatively safely and barrels that risk…

Just a few weeks ago, the base case was that the Fed would keep rates unchanged. Now Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are preparing for the opposite. Goldman has shifted its forecast to a 25 bp rate hike this week, while…

In Europe, the debate over repatriating gold reserves from London and New York back to domestic vaults is gaining attention again. If gold is truly a reserve asset for times of crisis, then simply having a claim on the metal…

This is exactly the kind of cost that looks like a shipping problem at first. In reality, it can travel much further through the economy. If a single tanker voyage suddenly costs $10–20 million more, someone eventually absorbs that difference…