Gold, silver plunge after Fed chair announced

A precious-metals sell-off intensified, driven in part by US President Donald Trump’s seemingly hawkish choice for the next Federal Reserve chair.

The selection suggested borrowing costs will stay high, driving gains in the dollar and a rout of gold and silver, which each fell more than 5% after plunging on Friday. “The scale of the unwind… is something I haven’t witnessed since the dark days of the 2008 global financial crisis,” one analyst told Reuters.

Still, experts were bullish, arguing that a surge in capital expenditures would drive a longer-term commodity supercycle: “We’re in the foothills of the Himalayas right now,” a Carlyle partner told the Odd Lots podcast. “We’re not even close to the real mountain peaks yet.”