China’s spot silver stays quiet as Hammack and yields cap the price

On Monday, Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) described silver rallying on the screens while Chinese physical buyers sat out the highs — see Silver rallies on paper. On Tuesday the screens turned down too, and the physical market stayed quiet.

What pressured the price

SMM points to a hawkish message from the Fed’s Beth Hammack, president of the Cleveland Fed, who it reports as saying rates still need to be raised, alongside a strong dollar and high Treasury yields, all landing just before September’s US CPI. For silver, which trades partly as a monetary metal, that combination raises the cost of holding it and makes it more expensive for non-dollar buyers.

China’s physical market

As reported by Shanghai Metals Market, 13 October 2026.

Downstream buyers — the manufacturers who use silver — made only small, just-in-time purchases, SMM reports. The discount to the Shanghai Futures Exchange’s December contract narrowed from Monday’s roughly 45 yuan/kg, but a discount it remains: physical silver in China is still cheaper than paper silver, a sign that buyers are not chasing metal.

Central-bank footnotes

SMM’s note also mentions two central banks moving in opposite directions: Kazakhstan plans to cut the share of gold in its reserves by about three percentage points, while the central bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo aims to raise its gold holdings to 5 tonnes by year-end. Neither is large enough to move the market on its own, and both sit against a backdrop of steady buying led by China — see PBoC’s September gold add.

What SMM expects

SMM expects silver to consolidate in the short term. That is its view, not ours. The bigger structural question — whether silver’s years of deficits have raised its floor — is covered in Silver’s new floor, and the levels traders are watching in $4,175 gold, $59.96 silver.

Every figure here is as reported by the publications listed under Sources, at the time they reported it. Prices move; the live gold price has the current one. Nothing on this page is investment advice.