Silver Falls 2.42% to $50.91 an Ounce as Markets Await December Fed Decision
Key Facts
FXStreet’s summary said silver stood at $50.91 an ounce on Friday, October 30, down 2.42% from $52.17 on Thursday. The move put the metal in the context of expectations for the U.S. interest-rate path, after the Federal Reserve left its target range unchanged at its October 28 meeting. The decision was not unanimous: Fed governors Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack preferred a quarter-percentage-point increase in the range. That disagreement kept the possibility of tightening in December in investors’ forecasts. By contrast, EL7 data recorded SIUSD closing at $52.38 on October 29 and $50.655 on October 30, while FXStreet’s reading differed from EL7’s close.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ advance estimate showed real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.4% in the third quarter of 2026, compared with growth of 2.2% in the second quarter. The bureau attributed the increase to growth in investment, consumer spending and government spending, partly offset by a decline in exports, while imports rose. Real final sales to private domestic purchasers also rose at an annual rate of 4.9%, after an increase of 4.6% in the previous quarter. These figures point to continued strength in domestic demand in the third quarter. The Fed said in its statement that economic activity was expanding at a solid pace and domestic spending had remained resilient, while inflation remained elevated.
On prices, the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s inflation measure, rose at an annual rate of 2.1% in the third quarter, after a 5.0% increase in the second quarter. The index excluding food and energy rose 2.5%, compared with 3.3% in the previous quarter. Monthly data for September, released on October 29, showed increases of 0.3% in the core index and 0.5% in the headline index. The Fed’s statement said inflation remained elevated and that accumulating more information would help the committee determine its monetary-policy stance. The economic and inflation data therefore left policymakers balancing strong activity against persistent price pressures.
Despite holding rates steady in October, most economists whose views were cited by the Associated Press expected another quarter-percentage-point increase at the next meeting, while investors saw a roughly 85% chance of a hike. The agency quoted Fed Chair Kevin Warsh as saying the credit market had seen some tightening, as the central bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged on Wednesday. The agency reported that the Fed’s increase in the previous month was its first benchmark-rate hike in three years. Cook and Hammack’s votes at the October meeting show that support for a rate increase already existed within the committee, rather than being only a possibility priced into markets. But the official decision at that meeting left the target range unchanged.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis is scheduled to release its second estimate of third-quarter GDP and corporate profits, along with October personal income and spending data, on November 25. The bureau set the release for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Federal Open Market Committee will then meet on December 8 and 9, the date investors’ and economists’ rate-hike expectations center on. The second GDP estimate and personal spending data will arrive before the meeting, as part of the sequence of information the Fed said it needs to determine its monetary-policy stance. The expected December increase remains a forecast attributed to economists and investors; the Fed did not announce in its October decision that it would raise rates at the next meeting.