After reaching a new all-time high, the precious metals market experienced a sharp decline at the end of the year, with gold and silver prices plunging simultaneously, sparking intense market attention on whether this correction is a short-term adjustment or a trend reversal.
(Background recap: Silver fully “cryptocurrency-ized”: volatility surges, precious metals have replaced the previous Bitcoin market)
(Additional context: Google searches for “cryptocurrency” plummeted to a low, with silver becoming the new safe haven)

Table of Contents

• Precious Metals Market Faces Setback
• Why Did Such a Sharp Correction Occur?
• Analysts: Correction Does Not Alter Medium-Long Term Bullish Structure

Following a rapid surge last week that repeatedly hit new highs, the precious metals market finally experienced a noticeable correction today (29). Driven by multiple factors, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium prices all declined sharply, turning market sentiment from euphoria to caution, creating an unusual “high-level plunge” at year-end.

Precious Metals Market Faces Setback

According to the latest data from TradingView, spot gold prices quickly retreated from a historical high near $4,500 per ounce, dropping to around $4,332.53, a single-day decline of about 4.39%. Despite this intense short-term correction, gold’s full-year gain in 2025 remains approximately 65% to 72%, marking the best annual performance since 1979.

Silver’s correction was even more dramatic. After soaring to a new high of $83.62 to $84 per ounce, prices suddenly plunged, falling to about $71.90 to $73.71, with a single-day drop of 7.9% to 9.11%. Nevertheless, silver’s full-year increase in 2025 still reaches approximately 150% to 181%, significantly outperforming gold.

Other precious metals were not spared. Platinum fell from about $2,478 to a range of $2,094 to $2,157, with a single-day decline of approximately 12%; palladium retreated by about $328, dropping to around $1,594, with the entire precious metals sector under pressure.

Why Did Such a Sharp Correction Occur?

Market analysis generally attributes this plunge mainly to profit-taking amplified in a low-liquidity environment at high levels. First, precious metals accumulated substantial gains in the second half of 2025, with prices rapidly diverging from their mean, triggering profit-taking behaviors among many investors at year-end, leading to concentrated selling pressure.

Second, low trading volume and thin liquidity at year-end made selling pressure more impactful on prices. Analysts point out that during the holiday season, any concentrated sell orders could magnify price volatility.

Additionally, some market participants mentioned that the perception of geopolitical risks temporarily cooled, weakening the immediate support from safe-haven buying, which contributed to the price decline.

Analysts: Correction Does Not Alter Medium-Long Term Bullish Structure

Despite the short-term volatility, several analysts remain bullish on precious metals outlook for 2026.

Kitco Metals analyst Jim Wyckoff believes that, from a technical perspective, the current correction is merely a mild profit-taking phase, and the main trend remains bullish; supply constraints for silver have not changed. J.P. Morgan expects that central bank demand for gold will remain high in 2026, helping to support prices.

Goldman Sachs further raised its target price for gold in December 2026 to $4,900 per ounce, believing that the upside risk still outweighs the downside risk.