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Surging silver and gold slide after CME
raises margin requirements
[December 30, 2025]
NEW YORK (AP) — Silver and gold futures fell sharply Monday after
the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the world’s largest trading
floors for commodities, asked traders to put up more cash to make bets
on precious metals with prices surging this year.
This year, gold futures are up 65% and silver has more than doubled. |
An employee of Pro Aurum gold house lifts 1 Kg silver bars of 999.9
purity besides 1 Kg gold bars in the safe deposit boxes room in Munich,
Germany, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File) |
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The
CME raised margin requirements for gold, silver and other metals
in a notice posted to the exchange's website Friday. These
notices require traders to put up more cash on their bets in
order to insure against the possibility that the trader will
default when they take delivery of the contract.
Exchanges sometimes boost margin requirements when a commodity
or other security goes on a significant run. In its notice, the
CME said it was raising margin requirements “per the normal
review of market volatility.”
Silver futures tumbled 8% early Monday while gold slid 5%
Silver prices have skyrocketed this year, topping records dating
back to the early 1980s when traders tried and failed to corner
the silver market. Supplies have dwindled, with production at
major mines slowing. At the same time there's been an increased
industrial need for silver for solar panels as well as data
centers.
Silver futures were roughly $30 an ounce at the beginning of
2025, and briefly touched $80 an ounce before the CME's
announcement.
Gold futures have risen due in part to geopolitical uncertainty
and fears that a bubble is forming in some stock markets.
The new requirements for traders dragged down almost all major
goldminers as well on Monday. Newmont, the world's largest
goldminer, was the biggest decliner on the S&P 500, falling 6%.
Smaller goldminers like Vista and Anglogold and Gold Fields,
fell even more sharply.
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