Gold experienced its biggest single-day drop since 1983, and silver may also have its worst single-day performance in history.

After Donald Trump announced his pick for Federal Reserve chairman, the international price of gold saw a sharp drop on Friday, potentially marking the largest single-day decline since 1983. The price of international silver plummeted by nearly 30%, likely experiencing its worst single-day performance in history. Spot gold was trading at $4883.62 per ounce, down by 9.5%, after hitting a historical peak of $5594.82 per ounce on Thursday. It later rebounded to over $4900 per ounce, a jump of over $200 from the daily low. Gold futures for February delivery in the US closed at $4745.10 per ounce, down by 11.4%. Analysts attribute this sell-off to profit-taking, which is also putting pressure on other precious metal varieties. Sue Ki Cooper, global head of commodity research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that there was already a demand for a pullback in the market, and the triggering factors for this sell-off may be a combination of multiple factors, including the announcement of the Federal Reserve chairman pick and broader aspects of fund flows. She added, "Both the movement of the US dollar and expectations of real yield play a role together in becoming the catalyst for profit-taking."