GOLD and SILVER PRICES sank Monday after spiking to fresh record highs, plunging by 4.6% and 14.3% respectively as London traders returned from the Christmas break to find the former monetary precious metals running close to $4550 and $84 per Troy ounce on surging speculation in China.

Now replacing ever-more silver in PV solar installations, copper also spiked and then sank after hitting new all-time highs for Shanghai settlement.

Global stock markets meantime struggled to hold last week's new all-time highs, while the Dollar rallied from its Christmas crash.

"Since 2021, with the explosive growth of the photovoltaic industry, silver used in solar energy has become a major driver of increased demand in recent years," says Chinese financial news site STCN, reporting social-media chatter about the global silver shortage.

But while new PV installations worldwide have continued to grow to new records, 2025 has seen the solar energy sector's total silver demand start falling, according to specialist analysts Metals Focus, thanks to the metal's rising price prompting fresh thrifting by solar panel manufacturers.

"Although there are long-term positive trends such as 'de-dollarization' in the market," STCN quotes Wang Yanqing, chief precious metals analyst at CITIC Securities Futures, "the short-term rapid rise has obviously over-traded those factors amid a high level of speculative sentiment."

Metals Focus now projects that 2026 will see global silver supplies lag demand for the 6th year in a row, but by the smallest margin since 2021.

That silver market deficit, plus now out-dated claims of ever-increasing PV solar demand for silver and also Beijing's start-November decision to introduce export licenses for silver from 1 January 2026, have combined over the past week to spur what Bloomberg calls "an eruption of interest fueled by social media" both in China and across US channels.

"This is not good," said tech mogul Elon Musk of China's silver export 'ban' on Saturday − some 6 weeks after the licensing plans were announced − tweeting on the X platform he paid $44 billion to control 2 years ago that "Silver is needed in many industrial processes."

Four of the top 10 "hot" stories on STCN are about silver today.

Trading in China's only pure-play silver ETF the Silver Investing LOF fund from UBS Guotou resumed today after the promoters closed it Friday amid huge volatility that took its stock-market price more than 60% above the net value of the assets held to back it.

That premium to NAV today eased only to 34.0%.

Shanghai gold prices fell Monday to the lowest in a week at ¥1001 per gram, but silver bullion in the world's No.1 consumer nation set a new auction record, leaping 4.6% to ¥19,414 per kilo.

With the Dollar holding at its lowest Yuan exchange rate since May 2023, trading at barely 7.00 CNY on the FX market, that put Shanghai silver at a Dollar-equivalent price above $86 per Troy ounce, hitting a record high premium of more than $8 per ounce to London quotes at the time of Monday's PM benchmarking in China.

Spot market quotes for silver in  London − heart of the world's precious metals trading and storage network − peaked at $83.90 per Troy ounce, while gold came within 65 cents of $4550.

London bullion borrowing costs were little changed from last week meantime, with 1-month lease rates on gold offering borrowers 1.3% per annum while returns to lenders of the white metals remained historically elevated at 6.6% for silver, 15.4% for platinum and 4.9% for palladium, signaling tight supply.

With gold losing $220 per ounce from Friday and Monday's peaks to erase all of Christmas Week's gains at $4330 per Troy ounce, silver sank $12 per ounce to trade back at Christmas Eve's London close of $71.85.

Fellow industrial precious metal platinum spiked to its own fresh record within $8 per ounce of $2500 before sinking to $2125.

Palladium prices hit new 3-year highs close to $2000 per ounce but then sank $330 to mid-December levels.