[MARKET ANALYSIS] Silver slightly pares back the 16% losses seen during the APAC session but remains comfortably in the red

• Spot gold ended Wednesday's session below the USD 5k/oz handle but attempted to regain above the level at the start of the APAC session but failed to do so. The yellow metal fell to a low of USD 4790/oz, weighed on by the plunge in silver prices, before slightly paring back losses as European trade gets underway.
• Spot silver wiped out the entirety of the two-day recovery the metal attempted to stage as trade at the Shanghai Metals Exchange got underway. The metal kissed USD 90/oz before slipping to a trough of USD 73.55/oz, with losses seen as much as 16%. Dip-buyers took advantage of the lower prices, with silver prices currently trading around USD 80/oz.
• Bian Ximing, a billionaire Chinese trader, has reportedly built a short position of around 30,000 contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. Ximing became a household name after making close to USD 3bln in the bull run in gold prices from 2022.
• 3M LME Copper continued the selloff seen throughout the US session, with the red metal dipping below USD 13k/t to a trough of USD 12.86k/t. This comes following continued worries that AI will become a bigger factor within business models. The tech sector has been weighed on in recent sessions, as in turn, dragged copper prices lower.

Silver's significant decline of up to 16% during the APAC session highlights pressing concerns in the commodities market, particularly driven by broader risk-off sentiment and profit-taking. As the metal partially recovers but remains down, this volatility could signal ongoing bearish sentiment in precious metals, potentially affecting related assets and trades within the sector.