It is noon on Thursday in Manhattan’s Diamond District and dealer turned social media influencer “Moses The Jeweler” can only guess at how much the gold bars in his hands or the silver rings on his fingers might be worth.
Prices for the two precious metals have surged in recent months and swung dramatically all week. By late on Wednesday, gold and silver were trading at record highs, fresh from huge one-day gains. On Thursday morning they both crashed almost 10 per cent in the space of 30 minutes before rebounding in the afternoon.
By Friday, prices were in freefall again as traders digested Donald Trump’s decision to nominate former Wall Street executive Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, with silver plunging more than 25 per cent in its biggest ever daily decline.