On January 8th, Beijing time, precious metals and related mining stocks experienced a significant pullback. Among them, silver performed the worst, with a decline far exceeding that of gold, putting pressure on the entire sector.

From the spot market perspective, during the night trading session, spot gold closed down 0.87%, while spot silver plummeted 3.56%—this gap says it all. By around 7:00 Beijing time, spot gold slightly rebounded to $4,459.53 per ounce, while silver hovered around $78 per ounce, still searching for support.

U.S. mining stocks also did not escape the downward trend. Hecla Mining and First Majestic Silver led the decline, both falling over 4%; Pan American Silver followed closely, dropping nearly 4%; Barrick Gold was relatively resilient, with a decline of just under 1%.

Why is silver so miserable? Simply put, silver has industrial attributes, but precisely because of this characteristic, its volatility is much greater than gold. Recently, factors such as the cooling of the Federal Reserve's rate cut expectations, CME raising margin requirements, and large-scale capital withdrawals have combined to trigger a sharp correction in silver. In comparison, gold, as a safe-haven asset, supported by continuous central bank gold purchases, has experienced a relatively moderate decline.