The price of silver topped $50 an ounce, rising to levels not seen in decades (Mark Makela) <\/p>\n
The price of silver hit a multi-decade high on Thursday as investors kept flocking to safe havens amid geopolitical and economic uncertainty, while gold eased off a record run.<\/p>\n
Stock markets, meanwhile, were mixed as traders weighed a slew of issues: massive AI investments, corporate results, US interest rates, the US government shutdown, political turmoil in France and a Gaza ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n
The price of silver topped $50 an ounce, attaining levels not seen since 1980, according to Bloomberg. The surge comes in the wake of sister safe-haven gold, which retreated after hitting a record above $4,000 an ounce on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a catch-up effect,” John Plassard, head of investment strategy at Cite Gestion Private Bank, told AFP.<\/p>\n
He cited concerns about the US economy, prospects of more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year and worries about France’s debt.<\/p>\n
“What’s also happening — and this is what gave silver an extra boost — is that we’ve started hearing talk of a shortage of silver,” Plassard said, noting that the metal is used as an investment asset as well as for industries such as solar panels.<\/p>\n
Gold and silver are seen as safe haven investments in times of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
The dollar firmed against main rivals as it rebounds following a deep retreat for much of 2025.<\/p>\n
The greenback’s recovery is “being propelled by a dual engine: deteriorating conditions abroad and recalibrated expectations at home,” said a note from Convera that pointed to political instability in France and “dovish pivots” in Japan.<\/p>\n
On the equities front, major US indices retreated from records the prior session amid a dearth of economic data due to a government shutdown.<\/p>\n
US stocks have been resilient despite Republicans and Democrats appearing no closer to reaching a deal to reopen the government over a week into the shutdown.<\/p>\n
“Even the most bullish markets take a break sometimes,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.<\/p>\n
Investors are turning their attention towards company results.<\/p>\n
Shares in soft drink and snacks giant PepsiCo jumped 4.2 percent after reporting a third-quarter sales increase that beat expectations.<\/p>\n
Shares in Delta also climbed more than four percent after the airline posted strong profits and offered a bullish outlook on travel demand.<\/p>\n
But Boeing slid 4.1 percent following a Reuters report that Turkish Airlines could switch to Airbus for a recent plane order because of concerns about economic terms with engine supplier CFM International.<\/p>\n
The Paris stock market dipped as French President Emmanuel Macron races to find a new prime minister after the resignation of Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.<\/p>\n
The Frankfurt DAX set a new record high.<\/p>\n
Ferrari had its worst slump since entering the Milan stock market in 2016, falling almost 15 percent at one point as an update to its 2030 financial guidance disappointed investors.<\/p>\n
In Asia, the Tokyo stock market closed up 1.8 percent after business-friendly Sanae Takaichi recently became leader of Japan’s ruling party.<\/p>\n
– Key figures at around 2010 GMT –<\/p>\n
New York – Dow: DOWN 0.5\u00a0percent at 46,358.42 (close)<\/p>\n
New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.3\u00a0percent\u00a0at 6,735.11 (close)<\/p>\n
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent\u00a0at 23,024.63 (close)<\/p>\n
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 9,509.40 (close)<\/p>\n
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.2 percent at 8,041.36 (close)<\/p>\n
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.1 percent\u00a0at 24,611.25 (close)<\/p>\n
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.8 percent at 48,580.44 (close)<\/p>\n
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 26,752.59 (close)<\/p>\n
Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 3,933.97 (close)<\/p>\n
Euro\/dollar: DOWN at $1.1558 from $1.1628 on Wednesday<\/p>\n
Pound\/dollar: DOWN at $1.3294 from $1.3404<\/p>\n
Dollar\/yen: UP at 153.14 yen from 152.69 yen<\/p>\n
Euro\/pound: UP at 86.94 pence from 86.77 pence<\/p>\n
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.6 percent at $65.22 per barrel<\/p>\n
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.7 percent at $61.51 per barrel<\/p>\n
bur-jmb\/des<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price of silver topped $50 an ounce, rising to levels not seen in decades (Mark Makela) The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,6228,36,161036,151474,161037,161034,161035,1831,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-487036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economic-uncertainty","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-gold-and-silver","12":"tag-government-shutdown","13":"tag-john-plassard","14":"tag-price-of-silver","15":"tag-safe-havens","16":"tag-stock-markets","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115347130022833642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}