Gold, silver losses ease after 'disturbing' safe haven sell-off
Ines Ferré ·
Senior Business Reporter
Mon, February 2, 2026 at 11:55 AM EST
2 min read
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Gold (GC=F) and silver (SI=F) appeared to steady on Monday following a dramatic crash and a reversal of a parabolic rally that stunned Wall Street.
"The dam broke," Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research, told Yahoo Finance on Monday. "Anybody could realize that the parabolic moves we were seeing last week and most of last month were unsustainable."
Gold hovered near $4,700 per troy ounce on Monday after tanking more than 9% last Friday, with the sell-off attributed by many on Wall Street to President Trump‘s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve Chair.
Meanwhile, silver futures slipped to near $76 per ounce on Monday, extending losses of more than 25% from last Friday.
Red more: Silver price volatility: What to know and how to invest
Despite the dramatic sell-off, some market watchers aren't convinced the worst is over.
“These swings in these sort of safe haven investments are a little bit disturbing,” Nancy Tengler, Laffer Tengler Investments CEO and CIO, told Yahoo Finance on Monday.
Tengler noted investors would be better suited “to move aside and wait for things to settle.”
“I would just stay away from this trade because it turned into a momentum trade,” she added.
Much of the price action in gold over the past year has been attributed to central bank purchases, a weakening dollar fueling the debasement trade, and private-sector investors getting in on the trade.
Over the weekend, JPMorgan analysts doubled down on gold, forecasting enough demand from central banks and investors this year to ultimately push prices to $6,300 per ounce by the end of 2026.
“Even with the recent near-term volatility, we believe longer-term rally momentum will remain intact,” wrote the analysts in a note on Sunday.
Silver’s rally has been even more stunning, with strategists pointing to speculation from Chinese traders. Prices surged more than 60% in January before crashing back down.
JPMorgan analysts forecast a higher floor for silver on average of around $75-80 per ounce, with the precious metal “unlikely to fully relinquish its recent gains.”
“Our analysis shows that while the air is getting thinner the higher we go in gold prices, we are not yet close to a place where the structural rally in gold is at risk of collapsing under its own weight,” they wrote.
Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, noted that with the Chinese New Year approaching and exchanges increasing margin requirements for trading, near-term risk appetite for precious metals may be limited.
“Against that backdrop, patience appears warranted, and chasing the market before a clearer picture emerges is unlikely to be the most prudent strategy,” wrote Hansen on Monday.
Story Continues
Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.
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