Topline
Gold and silver prices plunged Friday morning, halting momentum the metals had built in recent weeks that lifted silver to its highest price in two months, with analysts blaming fears over inflation for the price slump.
Silver plunged more than 10% Friday. (Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Key Facts
The price of silver is $76.69 as of 9:45 a.m. EST on Friday, down more than 10% but slightly higher than the intraday low price of $76.63 it hit earlier in the trading session.
Silver also fell in price on Thursday, declining from a price of nearly $90 on Wednesday, the highest level the metal has reached since early March.
Gold prices also fell Friday, reaching $4,542.90 as of 9:45 a.m. EST, down more than 3%.
Prices tumbled Friday amid inflationary fears, analysts said, including ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. analysts Daniel Hynes and Soni Kumari, who said “inflation expectations, higher yields and a stronger dollar are likely to keep gold under pressure in the near term.”
ANZ analysts also said “stronger-than-expected rise in consumer and producer prices raised concerns that the Fed may need to increase interest rates in the short term,” as higher interest rates typically correlate with lower metals prices.
Oil prices—which have traded inversely with metals throughout the Iran war—rose Friday morning, with the Brent crude index rising more than 2% to a price of $108.00 as of 9:45 a.m. EST.
Why Did Silver Hit Highs Earlier This Week?
Silver approached the $90 mark on Wednesday—a level it has not hit in more than two months—closing at $89.17 that day. The price of the metal surged largely because of increasing investor optimism in silver, Bloomberg reported, as well as other factors including President Donald Trump’s visit to China. Some analysts had suggested in recent weeks that the record-breaking rally gold and silver faced earlier this year could return and potentially lift the metals to new all-time highs. Philippe Gijsels, chief strategy officer at BNP Paribas Fortis, told CNBC last week he expects metals will “reach new all-time highs in the not too distant future, potentially this year,” because the factors that caused their prices to surge “are still very much in place.” He said “investors will come back into the market for gold and silver” once “the fog of war lifts,” saying inflationary pressures amid the Iran war had caused gold and silver to become volatile over the past few months.
Key Background
Gold and silver are still a ways off from the record-high prices of about $5,600 and $120, respectively, that they reached in January. Their prices steadily climbed throughout 2025 and early 2026 before crashing at the end of January, which analysts had attributed at the time to Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh, considered a monetary policy hawk, to lead the Federal Reserve. Prior to the crash, factors like Trump’s tariffs, interest rate cuts and growing international tensions were credited for the historic metals price rally. Throughout the Iran war, metals prices have remained largely volatile and tended to trade inversely with oil prices, which largely spiked during the conflict. Metals prices initially tumbled between late February and early March after the United States and Israel struck Iran, but they occasionally rose on hopes a peace deal would be reached.
Further Reading
Silver Price Jumps The Most In Months—Could Record Highs Return? (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/05/15/gold-and-silver-plunge-on-inflation-fears-after-hitting-highest-prices-in-months/
