Precious metals market reversal? Silver margin surges by 28.6%, exchanges take consecutive measures to cool down

【Chain Wen】In the first week of the new year, the precious metals market has experienced a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Gold and silver futures prices, which surged strongly last year, continue to rise, but volatility has clearly increased, especially for silver. Recently, Goldman Sachs issued a warning — it is expected that silver trading will face long-term challenges of high volatility and uncertainty.

There are two main factors putting pressure on the market this week.

First, the Bloomberg Commodity Index has initiated its annual rebalancing adjustment, resulting in a significant reduction in the weights of precious metals. Industry insiders expect this will trigger a wave of passive fund de-risking that tracks the index, putting profit-taking pressure on both gold and silver.

The more direct impact comes from CME Group. On Friday after hours, they once again raised the margin requirements for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures — this is the third time in the past month. Among them, the margin for silver increased the most sharply, by 28.6%. Exchanges typically do this to suppress high leverage and speculative trading.

In the short term, there is indeed pressure, but most institutions believe that there is still room for prices of precious metals and industrial metals to rise this year. The key will depend on subsequent policy developments and global economic data.