Silver Prices Surge Sharply, Downstream Adopts Cautious Wait-and-See Approach, Price Spread Widens in Spot Market [SMM Daily Review]

During the day, silver prices rose sharply, and the spot-futures price spread for the most-traded ag2602 futures contract widened during the morning session, while suppliers' quotations still showed significant disparities. In Shanghai, mainstream quotations for national standard silver ingots from suppliers were at a discount of 5 yuan/kg against TD, with some suppliers reporting small transactions at discounts of 20-30 yuan/kg against the SHFE silver 2602 contract. Some suppliers of non-delivery brand national standard silver ingots expanded their discounts against TD to 15-20 yuan/kg for sales, and there were limited speculative sell-offs at higher prices in the market, with quotes reaching discounts of 40~60 yuan/kg against TD. Approaching the weekend and year-end, some traders closed their accounts early, and actual transactions were mainly dominated by banks and large futures companies' risk subsidiaries. Downstream purchase intentions declined noticeably, with only limited buying at large discounts, leading to an overall sluggish market in terms of actual transactions.