Precious metals fell on Wednesday, but the complex posted impressive annual gains, led by silver’s historic 150% jump and gold’s biggest annual rise in more than 45 years.
At 15:15 GMT, spot gold was down 0.3% at $4,331.73 an ounce, after falling to a more than two-week low during the session and after hitting a record high of $4,549.71 on Friday.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery lost 0.9% to 4,346.40 an ounce.
Bullion is up nearly 65% in 2025, its biggest annual gain since 1979, when geopolitical factors such as the Iranian revolution drove prices higher.
The gold metal’s rise this year has been fueled by interest rate cuts and bets on further monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve, geopolitical conflicts, strong demand from central banks and rising holdings in exchange-traded funds.
“Perhaps towards the end of the first quarter of 2026 we could see gold test $5,000. It certainly appears that the kind of catalysts that buoy gold, especially over the course of the last year, have become self-sustaining,” said Ilya Spivak of Tastylive.
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Prices have pulled back from their recent highs as traders took profits after the CME raised margins on metal futures again.
Spot silver fell 4.8% to $72.83 an ounce, after hitting an all-time high of $83.62 on Monday.
Silver has gained more than 151% in 2025, far surpassing gold, to record its best year in history.
Spot platinum declined 6.1% to 2,064.21 an ounce, after hitting a record high of $2,478.50 on Monday and with an accumulated annual improvement of more than 127%, the largest in its history.
Meanwhile, palladium rose 0.1% to 1,612.25, closing the year with an advance of more than 78%, its best result in 15 years.
With information from Reuters
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