Market Beat: Why Silver Beat Gold and the S&P in 202 - And What Comes Next
Article by Jeffrey Neal Johnson in Market Beat
While the financial world has been captivated by the volatility of cryptocurrency and the steady march of gold, a different asset has quietly taken the lead in 2025. Silver, often dismissed as the volatile younger sibling in the precious metals family, is beginning to shed its reputation as the poor man’s gold.
Year-to-date (YTD), silver has posted gains of approximately 95%, significantly outpacing gold’s respectable 60% rise and crushing the broader returns of the S&P 500.
A rare convergence of events is driving this performance: aggressive industrial demand, shrinking global inventories, and shifts in monetary policy.
The fragility of the global silver market was on full display at the end of November. A cooling system failure at a CyrusOne data center disrupted operations at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), causing a ten-hour trading halt on the Comex silver futures market.
When electronic trading screens went dark, physical hubs in London and Shanghai took over. Spot prices spiked to a record $56.72 per ounce, showing that real, deliverable silver is in critically short supply.
This event serves as a critical proof of concept for ......