Silver’s sparkling rally! Spot silver hits record high; surges past $80 an ounce mark

Silver continued its glittering rally on Monday, surging past the $80-an-ounce mark. The white metal’s momentum was lifted by tight supplies, rising industrial demand and expectations of further US interest rate cuts. Besides silver, platinum also touched a record high, briefly.Spot silver jumped 3.8% to $82.15 an ounce, after earlier hitting an all-time high of $83.62, according to Reuters.The metal has spiked 181% so far this year, sharply outperforming gold, as it broke through the $80 level amid supply constraints, low inventories and growing industrial and investment demand. Its inclusion on the US critical minerals list has also added to investor interest. The white metal later slipped 1.3% to $78.12 per ounce as investors booked profits.“A combination of profit-taking and seemingly productive talks between Trump and Zelenskyy regarding a potential peace deal have put gold, silver on the back foot,” KCM trade chief market analyst Tim Waterer told Reuters. Gold prices eased slightly after scaling fresh highs in the previous session. Spot gold slipped 0.1% to $4,527.79 per ounce by 1152 GMT on December 28, having touched a record $4,549.71 earlier. US gold futures for February delivery were steady at $4,553.10 an ounce. Gold has been lifted by a mix of factors, including US Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and bets on further easing, geopolitical tensions, sustained buying by central banks seeking to diversify away from US securities and the dollar, and rising holdings in exchange-traded funds. Traders continue to price in two US rate cuts next year, a backdrop that tends to favour non-yielding assets. The US dollar hovered near the two-month lows reached last Wednesday, offering some support to bullion, which has enjoyed a strong rally in 2025, climbing 72% so far. Geopolitical developments also remained in focus. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Among other precious metals, spot platinum slipped 0.8% to $2,429.10 an ounce after earlier rising to a record $2,478.50, while palladium edged up 0.1% to $2,003.83 an ounce.