Silver Slides 6 Percent to $55.60 After Hot US Inflation Report

Updated 19:20 UTC

Silver fell further in afternoon trading in New York. Silver futures closed the day down 6.02 percent at $55.60 an ounce, down from $59.161, in market data tracked by The Orbit Post. The Wall Street Journal reported that front month Comex silver settled 6.1 percent lower at $55.55 an ounce, its lowest close in almost 11 months. Gold settled down 1.6 percent at $4,084.80 an ounce, the Journal reported. Dow Jones Market Data, carried by Morningstar, said the fall was silver's largest one day percentage drop since June 24, 2026, and its third straight daily fall. The Journal said traders sold metals after September consumer prices came in above forecasts, which raised market expectations for a Federal Reserve rate rise this month and pushed the dollar higher. Attacks in the Persian Gulf kept oil prices high and added to the risk that energy led inflation makes the Fed's path harder, the Journal added.

Silver futures fell 3.53 percent on Wednesday, Oct. 14 to $57.07 an ounce, down from $59.161 in market data tracked by The Orbit Post. The selling picked up speed after the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September consumer price report at 12:30 GMT.

The report came in hot. Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in September from August and 3.7 percent from a year earlier, up from 3.4 percent in August, Reuters reported. Core prices, which strip out food and energy, rose 0.3 percent on the month and 2.6 percent on the year. Economists had expected a core rise of 0.2 percent on the month and 2.5 percent on the year. Gasoline prices rose 9.1 percent in September and drove much of the monthly gain.

Bond markets moved fast. The 10 year Treasury yield jumped 9.3 basis points to 5.308 percent, and the two year yield rose 13.1 basis points to 4.924 percent, CoinDesk reported. Gold slumped 1.5 percent to $4,116 an ounce. Stock futures fell too. Silver, which moves harder than gold on most days, took the biggest hit among the main metals.

Why silver fell harder

Silver pays no interest. When yields rise, holding a metal that pays nothing costs more, and Reuters noted ahead of the report that high rates push investors toward assets that pay a return. A firm dollar adds pressure, since it makes dollar priced metals costlier for buyers in other currencies. Silver had already slipped below $60 this week. Spot silver eased 0.6 percent to $59.11 an ounce early on Wednesday, Reuters reported, and the drop through that level left the metal exposed once the inflation data landed.

What happens next

The Fed raised its benchmark rate in September to a range of 3.75 percent to 4.00 percent, its first hike in three years. Before the report, markets put the chance of another hike at the Oct. 27 to 28 meeting at about 22 percent, and most traders expected a hike by December. A hot core reading puts the October meeting back in play. The producer price report lands on Thursday and will show whether price pressure at the factory gate matches the consumer data. If it does, silver faces more pressure from yields. If it cools, the metal could recover part of the drop, as it has after past inflation shocks this year.