Silver Tops $75 As Precious Metals Power On

Good morning! Here is the latest in trending on Seeking Alpha:

‘Hard technology’: The world’s second-largest economy has launched three venture capital funds to invest in what it calls “hard technology” areas, Reuters reported, citing state broadcaster CCTV.

Asia rebounds: Markets in the region are ending the week on a positive note, including China (SHCOMP) and Japan (NKY:IND). The latter is rebounding after recent turmoil in its bond market.

Sentiment seesaws: The latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors shows mixed moves in market sentiment in this Christmas-shortened week, with bulls edging lower and bears inching up.

Silver on Friday scaled the $75/oz level for the first time, while gold and platinum hit new record highs, as a broader run in precious metals continued to power on at the close of the year.

Spot silver (XAGUSD:CUR) advanced as much as +1.0% to hit $75.42/oz. Spot gold (XAUUSD:CUR) added as much as +1.1% to notch an all-time high of $4,530/oz, while spot platinum (XPTUSD:CUR) jumped as much as +9.0% to a peak of $2,463.60.

Precious metals have seen outsized gains this year driven by several factors ranging from the prospects of U.S. interest rate cuts to volatility amplified by low liquidity. Silver in particular has seen a meteoric rise of +158.6% YTD on the back of supply constraints, its designation as a U.S. critical mineral, and solid industrial demand.

“Expectations of two rate cuts next year, amidst a tolerance of above-target inflation, are also motivating purchases of (these) commodities, as the debasement trade pushes some investors into hard, less cyclical materials with limited supplies that hedge the potential for currency weakness,” José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, observed this week.

Gold breaks a 40-year correlation: According to Seeking Alpha analyst Brian Gilmartin, this year’s uptrend in the yellow metal has come alongside gains in equities, breaking a negative correlation that gold had with stocks for four decades. “Is gold signaling an issue for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq again? It’s possible, although GLD’s breakout in October 2023 has now occurred even as the S&P 500 made new highs in late 2025,” he said.

Also see top silver mining stocks in terms of their Seeking Alpha Quant Rating and their YTD performance.

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What else is happening…

China targets 20 U.S. firms with sanctions over Taiwan arms sales.

Foreign phone shipments in China more than double in November.

Nvidia (NVDA) ties up with Groq, with its founder and others joining the chipmaker.

Barnes & Noble’s turnaround powered by Gen Z and millennials.

NHTSA to look into Tesla (TSLA) Model 3 door complaints.

Cantor Fitzgerald says Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO) “ripe for outperformance.”

Medicare pilot programs aim to reduce prescription drug spend.

Wedbush notes continued strength in memory, server component sales in November.

Italy says Meta (META) must allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp.

BP to sell 65% stake in Castrol to Stonepeak, valuing unit at $10.1B.

Today’s Markets

In Asia, Japan +0.7%. Hong Kong +0.2%. China +0.1%. India -0.4%.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.2%. Paris flat. Frankfurt +0.2%.
Futures at 7:40, Dow -0.02%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq +0.2%. Crude -0.06% to $58.37. Gold +0.7% to $4513.43. Bitcoin +1.7% to $88,711.18.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +1 bps to 4.14%

On The Calendar

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