SILVER BULLION leapt to fresh all-time high prices everywhere on Friday, breaking above $55 per ounce in London as trading in New York's Comex futures and options re-opened after a technical problem shut the world's most valuable derivatives exchange, the CME.

Amid the outage in Comex contracts − used by bullion traders worldwide to hedge positions − silver contracts in Shanghai had already set new Yuan highs overnight, rising 2.0% to ¥12,682 per kilo.

That new silver record came even as the Yuan leapt to fresh 14-month highs against the US Dollar on the FX market, and gold bullion in China − the precious metal's largest consumer market − rose only to 2-week highs above ¥948 per gram.

Silver then fixed at midday in London around $53.88 per Troy ounce at the City's auction, matching mid-November's 2nd highest ever such benchmark.

But with trading in US-settled Comex silver and gold futures contracts then re-opening as CME resolved its data centre "cooling" issue, the price of London silver then jumped by 2.6% in barely 80 minutes, peaking at $55.30 per Troy ounce.

That contrasts with gold bullion peaking Friday at $4208 in London spot trade, some 3.9% below mid-October's all-time Dollar price gold high.

"The CME outage caused significant issues across global markets including precious metals," says a trading desk note from Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi's bullion division.

"The trading of futures contracts is a key part of the price discovery mechanism across the market in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium...Timing could not have been at a worse time on the last day of the month, with a shorter trading day in the US after the Thanksgiving Holiday meaning liquidity is already low."

Stockpiles of silver bullion held in warehouses for the Shanghai Futures Exchange expanded Friday for a 2nd day running, growing 5.2% from Wednesday's decade low.

Untraded on Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday, New York-listed ETF giant the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV) − which keeps exactly 80.0% of its bullion backing in London − has so far expanded to need an additional 324 tonnes this week, the heaviest inflow since late-July.

With total silver stockpiles across London's professional vault network last reported at 26,254 tonnes at end-October, that would put the SLV's London backing at 47.5% of all silver held in the world's central bullion trading and storage hub.

Silver's fellow industrial precious metal platinum today leapt to 5-week highs at $1660 per Troy ounce as trading in the CME's Nymex contracts came back online.

"Although platinum's strong fundamentals are easing as the market moves from a supply deficit toward balance in 2026," says Mitsubishi's note, "the price outlook remains favourable.

"Investor and speculator interest remains remarkably low, leaving scope for gains. Precautionary stockpiling in an uncertain world is likely to keep conditions relatively tight and somewhat illiquid, with lease rates firm but not expected to be as elevated as we saw in 2025."

Like precious metals, most global stock markets rose amid the CME outage, taking the MSCI World Index higher for the 7th session running, rising within 1% of October's all-time high.

Shares in the CME Group (Nasdaq: CME) also rose again, similarly reaching a 2-week high.

Friday's new silver price records took the Gold/Silver Ratio below 76 for the first time in almost 18 months.

The CME-outage volatility also saw copper set new all-time highs, extending its "response to very bullish headlines coming out of" the CESCO Shanghai Copper Week conference, says analyst Natalie Scott-Gray at brokerage StoneX.

"This is a historic point of tightness for the copper supply chain," said Nicholas Snowdon, head of metals research for Mercuria Energy Group, at Asia Copper Week 2025 in Shanghai on Wednesday, warning that thanks to copper market fears of Trump's import tariffs, the USA is likely to hold 90% of global copper inventories in New Year 2026.