Analysts: Profit-taking and hedging activities may fuel a sell-off in precious metals such as gold and silver.

The plunge in gold and silver prices this week began with reports that Trump would nominate Warsh as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. Dirk Malaki, managing director of SLC Management, said that Warsh's hawkish background reduces the risk of a broad-based depreciation of the dollar. The market is returning to an orderly monetary policy track. Analysts also noted that traders taking profits quickly at the end of the month, or banks hedging against the impact of a sudden drop, may have contributed to the precious metals sell-off. Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault, said he has been involved in the precious metals market for 20 years and has never seen anything like it. However, he downplayed the possibility of retail investors suddenly withdrawing funds on Friday, pointing to similar unusual movements in base metals markets such as copper, where copper futures fell 4.5% on Friday. Ash also stated that looking only at gold and silver, it's easy to say this is retail frenzy, but there is no retail participation in the base metals market. (Jinshi)