The head of JP Morgan, one of the USA’s leading banks, has suggested a serious and imminent correction to the US stock market could take place. This has fuelled investor anxiety and resulted in unprecedented increases in precious metal prices today.

The holy grail of $49.51/oz (2011 spot price on a UK bank holiday - so no official fix) and $49.45/oz (18th January1980 fix) for silver has been finally been exceeded with today's fix of $49.705/oz  (£37.19/oz). This means that all GBP and US$ records in gold and silver have now been broken. Exchange rate differences between 1980, 2011 and 2025 accounting for the time lag between UK and US record prices being achieved.

Most importantly for UK investors is the GBP prices for both metals. Silver briefly touched £38.50/oz and we were paying over 100 pence per gram for 925 silver this afternoon (now having to convert to using £’s!). Gold reached £98/gram (3050/oz) which is an astounding price. Both metal prices fell back significantly later in the day but it was quite a spike whilst it lasted!