Gold and silver prices today: As the Lunar New Year holidays begin, Chinese markets prepare for the largest scheduled trading holiday of the year. Major regional financial centers will decrease their trading hours, while mainland markets will stay closed for the full week.
The market will close from Monday, February 16 to Monday, February 23. Trading will resume on Tuesday, February 24, according to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange calendar.
Market analysts predict that the closing of the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) and Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) will have a big effect on the world precious metals market.
Choice Broking’s Commodity & Currency Analyst Aamir Makda says that this shutdown would result in a “liquidity vacuum,” meaning that there will be less global liquidity for gold and silver, making them more vulnerable to price volatility because they will not have the “Shanghai Premium.”
Due to US macroeconomic data, the weakening of the US dollar, and growing geopolitical cues, the price of gold and silver has remained unstable during the last two weeks. At the moment, spot gold is trading around 10% less than its peak of $5,608 an ounce. Nevertheless, the precious metal has increased 7.76% over the past 30 days in spite of the volatility.
However, the price of spot silver is still 58% below its peak of $121.64. Over the last 30 days, the white metal has dropped by over 18.15 percent.
Spot gold prices dropped by 0.34% on Monday, remaining close to $5,000. Spot silver prices, however, fell by over 2% to $77 an ounce.
What effect does Shanghai Futures have on the pricing of metals?
According to market observers, the biggest source of leverage, speculative positioning, and incremental demand today is the Chinese exchanges. Experts also predict that China’s contribution to industrial demand will continue to have an impact on the silver market in particular, resulting in a significant price decline as trading pauses.
China chose to increase export limits on silver on December 30, expanding restrictions on a once-routine metal that is essential to US defense and industrial supply lines.
In the first eleven months of 2025, China exported more than 4,600 tonnes of silver, according to Wind Information, which CNBC cited.
However, SHFE silver inventories have lately dropped to about 350 tonnes, the lowest levels in almost ten years, from over 3,000 tons at their peak in 2021.
COMEX registered (deliverable) silver stocks in the United States were trading at about 90ā95 million ounces, which is a moderate float in relation to the overall amount of open interest.
Structural rigidity restricts the amount of sustainable price decline. Industrial sectors continue to use a lot of silver, especially for solar PV, electronics, and battery applications, and recycling a large portion of that supply is difficult. Harshal Dasani, Business Head, INVasset PMS, stated that physical availability is still limited because SHFE vaults are empty and COMEX registered stockpiles are not excessive.
Forecast for the price of gold and silver during the Shanghai Futures shutdown
With the Shanghai session currently closed, gold and silver may resume trading more based on U.S. economic data and equity-market mood this week, according to Kaynat Chainwala, AVP-Commodity Research, Kotak Securities.
Both metals may gain if the risk-on sentiment in US markets continues, but silver is probably going to do better, resulting in a weaker gold-silver ratio. However, Chainwala noted that in a risk-off situation, silver can decline more precipitously than gold.
However, Dasani of INVasset PMS pointed out that every significant decline is probably going to be rapidly bought back, even though paper selling might try to lower prices during Shanghai shutdown.
“Silver’s tighter vault dynamics suggest volatility may expand briefly on the downside, but remain structurally supported rather than trend-breaking,” Dasani continued, as gold, supported by deeper above-ground deposits, may remain somewhat steadier.
