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Precious metals experienced dramatic declines on Friday following many months of gains, with analysts attributing the crash to factors including Kevin Warsh’s Fed chair nomination, Chinese speculation crackdowns, and increased margin requirements—though whether metals recover will reveal if structural forces or mere momentum drove the previous rally.

What caught our eyes this week

Precious metals lose their sparkle

After months of frenzied buying, precious metals reversed hard on Friday, with spectacular volatility driving declines of 13% for gold, 14% for platinum, 18% for palladium, and a whopping 26% for silver. As momentum traders lick their wounds, fingers are being pointed at Kevin Warsh’s nomination for Fed chair. His historically hawkish stance and perceived independence from the White House could be seen as reducing the debasement risk that was supposedly driving investors away from fiat currencies toward hard assets like gold and silver. Was the Warsh news a catalyst or just a coincidence? We’ll likely never know for sure. Other factors include a crackdown on speculation in China and increased margin requirements at futures exchanges. What matters more is how these assets trade now that their momentum has taken a knockout punch. If narratives like central bank diversification, fiat currency debasement, and geopolitical fragmentation are true underlying structural forces, one would expect to (eventually) see a nice recovery from precious metals. If they can’t recover, then maybe it was more about finding an excuse to jump on the momentum train after all.

Graph showing sharp decline of silver and gold prices on Friday, January 30.

CHART OF THE WEEK: LBMA Gold Price PM ($/ozt) and Silver New York Spot ($/ozt) as of 1/30/2026. Cerity Partners, Factset.

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

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