Silver price jumps 5%, gold attracts bargain hunters above $4,000

Silver and gold snapped back on Tuesday as bargain hunters stepped into a two-week slide, undeterred by a US-Iran war that ground into its 10th straight day of strikes.

Silver led the move. Comex silver for September delivery rose 3.6% to $59.11 an ounce around midday in New York, while spot silver jumped as much as 5%, its biggest intraday gain in more than five weeks, extending Monday’s bounce off an eight-month low near $55.50.

Comex gold for August delivery rose 1.6% to $4,080.90 an ounce, with spot bullion trading near $4,078, more evidence of the support the metal has found at the $4,000 mark it defended repeatedly last week.

“Today’s move looks more like dip-buying than a response to new headlines,” said Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING, adding that silver is outperforming because it benefits from safe-haven demand and stronger sentiment across industrial metals as copper rallies. Around 50% of silver demand is from industrial applications.

The buying came with the macro backdrop largely unchanged. Oil climbed as the US and Iran exchanged strikes for a 10th consecutive day and Yemen’s Houthis warned ships against calling at Saudi ports, while mediators pushed a proposal for a 10-day ceasefire aimed at salvaging the June 17 interim deal. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold rates at next week’s meeting, but traders price a 64% chance of a hike by September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Not everyone is convinced the bounce has legs. “After 18 days’ horizontal movement there has almost certainly been some fresh buying interest,” said Rhona O’Connell, head of market analysis at StoneX, though she cautioned that gold’s technical picture remains decidedly bearish and a break higher would be a surprise.

Moscow sells, Beijing hesitates

Official demand is offering little help. Russia’s central bank, steward of the world’s fifth-largest gold stockpile, sold 43.5 tonnes of bullion in the first half of 2026, its biggest six-month sale in at least 25 years according to World Gold Council data, as the Kremlin plugs a widening budget deficit. Reserves stood at 73.4 million ounces at the start of July, the lowest since February 2020, after a sixth straight monthly decline. The bank began drawing on its bullion in November 2025 to backstop a budget stretched by the war in Ukraine.

China, the biggest buyer of physical gold, is not filling the gap: wholesale demand sat near decade lows in June and local gold ETFs posted record monthly outflows, the World Gold Council said last week, with the central bank’s 20-month buying streak the main bright spot.

Physical demand is doing more for silver. India’s import restrictions have created local shortages, with dealer premiums at $6.50 an ounce this month, a six-month high, and the market is headed for a sixth consecutive year of supply deficits.

Platinum and palladium also rose.

The war has taken a heavy toll on a multiyear bull run: gold remains down more than a quarter from January’s peak near $5,600 and silver less than half its record above $120, with silver off about 17% in 2026 and gold about 6%, though both are still well ahead of a year ago.

(With files from Bloomberg and Reuters)