SILVER and GOLD's historic price spikes pulled back Tuesday after hitting yet another record high, up 85% and 60% respectively since the start of 2025 in highly volatile and tight market conditions as global stock markets resumed last week's slump amid the worsening US-China trade war.

China's leaders "want to pull everybody else down with them," said US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent to the FT overnight after Beijing - faced with additional trade tariffs from President Trump of 100% after blocking REE exports to the US - banned its citizens from doing business with US subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean (KRX: 042660).

With China's stock market falling 1.2% to 3-week lows as Japan's Topix lost 2.0% for the day, the price of silver touched $53.60 per Troy ounce only to sink, rally and sink again in London trading, dropping more than $3 from its new all-time peak.

High-to-low, London silver priced in Dollars has moved 7.8% across the past 2 days, almost twice the size of its average 2-day range since last October but less than half the volatility seen following US President Trump's 'Liberation Day' trade tariffs shock at the start of April.

Investment inflows to the giant SLV silver ETF yesterday meant it needed an extra 310 tonnes of bullion to back its shares in issue, making the sharpest 1-day growth since mid-July to reach the largest size in over 3 years.

New York's Comex silver futures today cut their discount to London spot prices to just below $1 per ounce, while 1-month lease rates in London − heart of physical precious metals trading and storage worldwide − eased again beneath 27% annualized.

But that level continued to reflect a marked squeeze of global liquidity in the industrially-useful precious metal, with the cost of borrowing silver still at unprecedented levels, disrupting silver supply chains from mining to refining to trading.

Gold has meantime moved 4.4% high-to-low so far this week − also twice its recent average range but half the Liberation Day volatility of early April − peaking at $4179 as London trading began on Tuesday before briefly dipping through yesterday's new record high of $4100.

"With gold ETF flows remaining strong, central bank buying expected to be resilient, we feel confident and compelled to update our target prices for gold," says French bank Societe Generale, raising its 2026 gold price forecast to $5000 per ounce.

"The White House’s unorthodox policy framework should remain supportive for gold given fiscal deficits, rising debt...[and] a push to cut rates with inflation around 3%," says US finance giant Bank of America, also predicting $5000 gold next year.

On the other side of the trade, "It's extremely busy, business has been very, very high. People just want to sell," says Chong Kee of the eponymous Gold Shop in Hong Kong about the flood of jewellery, coins and small bars coming in.

"Cash runs out fast," says Sandro Ragovski of Diamond District Gold Buyers in New York.

"Sometimes I have to pay with checks, or even walk with clients to the bank."

Swedish cash-for-gold scrap buyer GuldBrev today floated its shares on Nasdaq Nordic's growth-stock equity market after seeing its IPO more than 200% over-subscribed.

Shares in US-based pawn stores operator FirstCash Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: FCFS) − which bought UK pawnbrokers H&T for $300m last month − ended Monday 0.4% lower from a week before, but have risen 49.6% year-to-date.

"The gold rally of September-October may have peaked in trendiness," said a note from German finance giant Deutsche Bank yesterday, denying "an impending correction" but forecasting "more neutral behaviour" in bullion prices.

Back in the stock market, "Global fund managers are the most bullish on equities since February," says TheStreet.com, quoting Bank of America's latest survey as stock allocations reach the highest in 8 months.

"Cash levels have dropped and investors have largely abandoned recession fears...[Yet] a record 60% of surveyed investors now say global equities are overvalued, and 54% believe AI-related assets are in bubble territory."

Formerly part of the so-called 'debasement trade' alongside gold and equities, cryptocurrency Bitcoin today fell back to its lowest in a month, trading 8.9% lower since wealthy European financial centre Luxembourg said it's put 1% of its $730 million Intergenerational Sovereign Wealth Fund (FSIL) into a BTC ETF and the UK's FCA financial regulator abolished its ban on Bitcoin ETFs, also last Thursday.

Friday then saw US President Donald Trump announce 100% tit-for-tat trade tariffs on China, sparking the sell-off in US-listed AI and other tech stocks.

Gold priced in UK Pounds today crossed above £3100 per Troy ounce for the first time ever, rising 6.3% from 1 week ago before dropping £35 to £3095.

Euro gold meantime crossed a new record of €3600, adding €500 per ounce since this time last month, before dropping €55 to €3553.