Trump’s Fed pick Kevin Warsh sends gold down 12% and silver plunges as much as 32%

Gold and silver tumbled on Friday after Donald Trump named Kevin Warsh as his nominee to run the Federal Reserve, with gold down about 12% to roughly $4,786 an ounce and silver plunging as much as 32% to around $80, Business Insider reported. The moves marked dramatic reversals for both metals: gold’s worst single-day loss in more than a decade and silver’s biggest drop since 1980.

US equities also pulled back, with the S&P 500 closing at 6,939.03 (down 0.43%), the Dow at 48,892.47 (down 0.36%, or 179.09 points), and the Nasdaq 100 at 25,552.39 (down 1.28%). Traders rapidly repriced monetary-policy expectations after the nomination, as Warsh is seen as more hawkish and likely to preserve the Fed’s independence.

The US Dollar Index, which has fallen about 11% over the past 12 months, spiked nearly 1% shortly after Trump announced the pick on Truth Social, a move Business Insider said helped trigger the sell-off in metals. Analysts described the reaction as partly technical and partly a reassessment of the so-called debasement trade that had powered precious-metals gains.

"You knew there was going to be some trigger that would cause a bit of a technical pullback," Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management said, while José Torres of Interactive Brokers called the sell-off a "knee-jerk reaction." David Rosenberg wrote that the market reaction points to "less dovish" and more "orthodox expectations," with some unwinding of the debasement trade.

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