Gold and Silver Slide as Stronger Dollar Sparks Volatility

LONDON (February 5) Gold slipped back under $5,000 on Thursday, trading at $4,875 by mid-morning GMT.

The metal has struggled to find direction, lacking fresh catalysts, while a stronger dollar kept pressure on prices.

Silver suffered a sharper hit, the white metal fell as much as 15% in the Asian session, now trading around $78 after topping $92 on Tuesday.

The sell-off began in Shanghai, where silver futures led the drop, spilling into global spot markets and erasing much of the recent rebound.

The rout follows a brief pause earlier this week, as traders remain wary ahead of major central bank meetings. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are due to announce interest rate decisions on Thursday, while US nonfarm payrolls data – originally due Friday – has been pushed to 11 February after a partial government shutdown.

Dollar strength has been a key pressure point, with Kevin Warsh’s nomination as the next Federal Reserve chair, seen as less dovish, reinforcing bets that monetary policy may stay tighter for longer and metals remaining highly sensitive to the greenback, yield repricing, and Fed signals.

Positioning has partially reset after recent swings, but confidence remains fragile, and the combination of macro uncertainty and dollar-driven flows suggests gold and silver could see further choppy, two-way trading, even as structural drivers such as geopolitical tension and diversification demand remain intact.

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