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In a record weird year for the economy, the price of silver is the latest thing to behave strangely. The price of the second fiddle precious metal has soared over the last month, hitting record highs and outpacing the growth of gold. After hovering between $15 and $25 an ounce for much of the last decade, the price of silver topped $40 an ounce this fall before spiking to a record high of $82 at the end of December. After topping $80 on Monday, silver fell back closer to $70 an ounce still more than double what the metal was worth only a year ago. Precious metals like silver tend to do well in times of economic uncertainty and 2025 has fit that bill and then some. Investors looking to insulate themselves from the Trump administrations chaotic economic choices turned to gold as a safe haven asset in 2025, sending the price of the top dog precious metal up. Like silver, golds price growth outstripped the stock market this year and hit new record highs. Long-awaited cuts to the federal interest rate, and future cuts on the near horizon, are also pushing the price of precious metals higher. Small time investors are getting in on the silver action, with amateur traders organizing on Reddit and plotting their moves like they did in the early heyday of meme stocks. Silvers price was already on the rise, but a looming change to Chinese trade policy may be sending silver even higher. At the start of the year, China will implement a new set of rules on its metal exports designed to step up the protection of resources and the environment in the country a change that is sowing concerns about silvers supply. China also plans to place more stringent restrictions on exports of steel and other metals in the coming year to address what it calls an insufficient supply-demand balance in the steel trade. Silver isnt just an investment Investors have flocked to silver over the course of the year, but the precious metal has many uses beyond holding its value over time. Silver has a wide range of applications and is used heavily in electric vehicles and solar panels two areas that have boomed in recent years. Given those applications, any change to the global silver supply is a cause for concern for Elon Musk, who leads EV maker Tesla. This is not good. Silver is needed in many industrial processes, Musk posted in a reply to a post about Chinas policy change on X. After Mexico, China is the worlds second largest supplier of mined silver. Silver features prominently in solar technology, where it is converted into a paste that coats solar cells. When light strikes the silicon, electrons are set free and the silver the worlds best conductor carries the electricity for immediate use or stores it in batteries for later consumption, global silver association The Silver Institute explains. In 2014, the solar industry accounted for only around 5% of global silver demand, a percentage that basically tripled a decade later. Data centers, currently an explosive area of investment for many major tech and AI companies, also rely heavily on silver and other metals. Trade changes aside, silver is known as a riskier bet than its more valuable sibling metal. In October, analysts at Goldman Sachs warned that silvers big 2025 rally might fizzle out and wasnt likely to stay as steady as gold through its gains. In the near term, we see significantly more volatility and downside price risk for silver than for gold, which is the only commodity supported by a structural central-bank bid,” Goldmans analysts wrote. “Silver lacks the institutional and economic profile that supports gold Without a central bank bid to anchor silver prices, even a temporary pullback in investment flows could trigger a disproportionate correction. Safe haven-seekers counting on silvers winning streak may want to take note.
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E-Commerce
SoftBank Group will acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge Group in a deal valued at $4 billion, the companies said on Monday, as the Japanese investment firm looks to deepen its AI-related portfolio. The acquisition would expand SoftBank’s exposure to digital infrastructure as the Japanese conglomerate is positioning its portfolio to focus on artificial intelligence. DigitalBridge shares rose about 9.7% to $15.27 on Monday, following a 45% rise earlier this month after Bloomberg News first reported the acquisition talks. The $16 per share offer represents a 15% premium over DigitalBridge’s closing price on Friday and values the company at $2.92 billion, with the deal expected to close in the second half of next year. SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to capitalize on surging demand for the computing capacity that underpins artificial intelligence applications. The acquisition “is certainly a milestone in solving critical infrastructure issues,” said Jacob Yahiayan, CEO at DigitalBridge investor Urban Logistic Advisory Services, but noted SoftBank is still far from controlling 10% of the global hardware- and software-as-a-service market. DigitalBridge invests in digital infrastructure sectors such as data centers, cell towers, fiber networks, small-cell systems and edge infrastructure, with a portfolio including companies such as Vantage Data Centers, Zayo, Switch, and AtlasEdge. Founded in 1991 as real estate-focused Colony Capital, the firm pivoted under CEO Marc Ganzi into digital infrastructure and rebranded as DigitalBridge in 2021 after shedding most of its legacy property assets. Ganzi will continue leading DigitalBridge as a separately managed platform, the companies said. As of September 30, DigitalBridge managed around $108 billion in assets, making it one of the largest dedicated investors in the digital ecosystem. The company, along with OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi-based tech investor MGX, is investing billions of dollars in the Stargate project, a large-scale computing and infrastructure initiative aimed at supporting advanced AI development. OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank said in September they plan to build five new computing sites across Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio, which are expected to have a combined power capacity of about seven gigawatts when in operation. Akash Sriram and Mihika Sharma, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Wall Street’s main indexes kicked off the final week of the year on a softer note on Monday, as heavyweight technology stocks retreated from last week’s gains that had pushed the S&P 500 to record highs. The information technology sector weighed on the S&P 500, as most tech and AI-linked stocks declined, with Nvidia down 1.8%, Broadcom off 1%, and Palantir Technologies shedding 1.4%. “This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust. “A big reason for that is the top tech names, excluding Tesla, do not have challenging valuations given their growth rate, the moat around their business and their financial strength, which is unparalleled.” Tesla also fell 1.8% after hitting a record high last week and weighed on the consumer discretionary sector. Materials slipped 1%, with precious metal miners sliding as silver dropped sharply after topping $80 per ounce for the first time, while gold also fell after back-to-back record highs last week. Conversely, energy stocks gained the most, up 1.2%, tracking a 2% rise in oil prices. At 11:13 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 217.14 points, or 0.45%, to 48,493.83, the S&P 500 lost 28.77 points, or 0.42%, to 6,901.26 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 150.02 points, or 0.63%, to 23,443.07. Stocks pulled back after the S&P 500 was in the 1% range of the 7,000-point mark, and the blue-chip Dow hit a record closing high last week. Some investors were eyeing a “Santa Claus rally”, a seasonal phenomenon where the S&P 500 typically posts gains in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January, according to Stock Trader’s Almanac. All three indexes are headed for firm monthly gains, with the Dow and S&P 500 on pace for their eighth consecutive month in the green. The bull market, which began in October 2022, stayed intact despite concerns over high valuations of technology companies and market volatility, on the back of continued optimism around AI, interest-rate cuts and a resilient economy. All three main indexes are set for their third consecutive yearly gain. On the macro front, minutes from the Fed’s previous meeting and a weekly reading of jobless claims will be on the radar in an otherwise data-light week. The S&P 500 has added about 17% so far this year, as the frenzy to capitalize on AI helped the U.S. benchmark overtake Europe’s STOXX 600, despite investors diversifying away from U.S. stocks earlier in the year. DigitalBridge gained 9.6%, with Japan’s SoftBank Group set to acquire the digital infrastructure investor in a deal valued at $4 billion. Trading volumes are expected to be light in the holiday-affected week with U.S. markets shut on Thursday for New Year’s Day. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.85-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.56-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 22 new highs and 177 new lows. Purvi Agarwal and Shashwat Chauhan, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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