Silver price today: latest spot and futures moves, key levels, and what’s driving the next leg of volatility

Silver is getting hammered in early Thursday trading as investors unwind crowded bets and the U.S. dollar firms, keeping the metal in a high-volatility loop of sharp drops, sudden rebounds, and fresh selling. The latest slide follows last week’s surge to record territory and underscores how quickly leveraged positioning can flip when liquidity thins.

As of around 7:50 a.m. ET, benchmark silver futures were trading in the mid-$70s per ounce, while spot silver was hovering in the mid-$70s after briefly dipping into the low-$70s during the morning selloff.

Latest spot and futures moves

Spot silver fell sharply in the morning, touching an intraday low near $73.41 per ounce before bouncing and then slipping again. That low is now the first major “line in the sand” traders are watching because it arrived during forced, fast selling rather than a calm, two-sided market.

Futures were similarly unstable. The most-active contract dropped roughly 10% early, trading near $76 per ounce around 7:50 a.m. ET, after swinging through a wide range in the prior hours. The gap between spot and futures has also widened at times, a sign that liquidity and financing conditions are playing a bigger role than usual.

Key levels that matter now

Silver’s next move is likely to be shaped less by narrative and more by whether prices can hold (or fail) levels that traders use to control risk.

In plain terms: holding $75–$80 would suggest the market is finding footing; losing the low-$70s again would keep the tape fragile.

What’s driving the next leg of volatility

Three forces are colliding:

1) A firmer dollar. The U.S. dollar index pushed to a roughly two-week high, which tends to pressure dollar-priced metals by making them more expensive for non-U.S. buyers and encouraging a shift into cash-like safety.

2) Position unwind and leverage. Silver’s market depth is smaller than gold’s, and it’s a common vehicle for leveraged trades. When prices move quickly, margin calls can trigger selling that has little to do with longer-term fundamentals. That creates the “air pocket” effect: bids vanish, prices gap lower, then bounce when short-covering kicks in.

3) Risk tone across markets. The broader market backdrop has been shaky, and silver often behaves like a hybrid of safe-haven metal and high-beta commodity. In a true risk-off moment, that split personality can hurt: investors sell it as a risky position even while talking about metals as protection.

Why silver’s swings are bigger than gold’s

Silver tends to overshoot because it sits at the crossroads of two demand stories:

• Monetary/hedge demand: investors treat it as a store of value in uncertain periods.

• Industrial exposure: it’s tied to manufacturing and tech supply chains, so growth fears can hit it harder.

When the market is calm, that blend can be supportive. When volatility spikes, it becomes a problem: investors who bought for “hedge” reasons can get squeezed by the same liquidity dynamics that drive industrial-linked commodities lower.

What would calm the market from here

The fastest way for volatility to cool is not a big rally—it’s time spent holding a range. Traders will look for:

• Smaller intraday ranges (fewer $5–$10 swings in hours)

• Spot and futures moving more in sync

• A stable dollar rather than a steady climb

If silver can hold the $75–$80 band through multiple sessions, dip-buying may return and volatility could compress. If the market revisits the low-$70s and fails to bounce quickly, the path of least resistance stays lower—driven by risk limits, not calm conviction.

Sources consulted: Reuters; CME Group; Trading Economics; Business Insider