HONG KONG: Silver slipped further as Asian markets presented a mixed picture in the final trading day of 2025 on Wednesday (Dec 31), with some stocks tracking Wall Street losses as investors eyed a New Year break.
Silver dipped nearly nine per cent by mid-afternoon and gold also edged lower, extending declines from recent record highs.
Trading remained thin in the holiday-shortened week with Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore slightly down while Shanghai, Taipei and Mumbai saw modest gains to round off a strong year for worldwide markets.
The movements came after Wall Street’s main indices closed slightly lower on Tuesday as worries over valuations of artificial intelligence stocks lingered.
Still, US indices remained on track for solid gains over 2025 as a whole, and markets in Asia similarly enjoyed a healthy year.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed up 28 per cent for all of 2025.
For the full year, Seoul’s Kospi added 75 per cent and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained more than 26 per cent, though both markets were closed for a holiday on Wednesday.
Official data showed factory activity in China ticked up slightly in December, a silver lining to an otherwise lacklustre end to the year for the world’s second-largest economy.
The Federal Reserve’s monetary easing in the second half of this year has been a key driver of the global market improvements, compounding a surge in the tech sector on the back of the vast amounts of cash pumped into AI.
Minutes of the Fed’s recent policy meeting in December indicated that most of its officials see future rate cuts as appropriate, if inflation cools over time as expected.
“Wall Street is rounding out the year in a subdued fashion, capping a good year for stocks, albeit one that included a nervous moment or two,” wrote Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com in Melbourne.
“The markets are pricing in a pretty much close to perfect set of circumstances going into next year. Above-trend economic growth, a stable labour market, continued disinflation, more rate cuts, and an AI boom underpinning it all.”
Some of the biggest recent movement has come with precious metals like gold thanks to their status as a safe-haven investment amid geopolitical unrest.
But both gold and silver have seen sharp decreases in recent days. Gold fell to about US$4,324.25 per ounce on Wednesday, while silver slid just over one per cent to about US$71.03 an ounce, after reaching a record-high US$84 on Monday.
Oil dipped again slightly after jumping more than two per cent on Monday, as negotiations to end Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine continue with no clear breakthrough.
An end to the fighting could see sanctions on Russian oil removed, which would see a huge fresh supply hit the market.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/mixed-end-asia-trading-year-silver-slips-lower-markets-stocks-5770946
