Trump's appointment of the Fed chairman brought down gold and silver prices. Copper also fell

The appointment of Kevin Warsh to the post of Federal Reserve Board governor, which President Donald Trump announced on Friday, has crashed precious metals prices. Business Insider reports on this.

Investors revised their forecasts for monetary policy, and the so-called short selling that had fueled the record rise in gold prices resulted in losses.

Gold, which over the past year has risen in price by about 65%, fell by 12% to trade at $4,786. This is the biggest one-day drop in gold prices in a decade.

Silver, which last year significantly outperformed gold, plummeted 32% to trade at about $80 an ounce. This is the biggest drop for the metal since 1980.

Copper, which has joined the general trend in the metals market in recent weeks, also declined after gold and silver, retreating from recent highs. After reaching a record high of over $14,000 per tonne on Thursday, the copper price fell to around $13,800 on Friday.

U.S. stocks, which hit record highs earlier this week, also declined.

The tech-oriented Nasdaq Composite fell by more than 1%. The S&P 500 index fell even further, dropping below the 7,000 mark – a key psychological threshold that it crossed for the first time in its history this week.

Here are the U.S. indices as of the close of trading on Friday at 16:00 Eastern Time (23:00 Kyiv time):

→ S&P 500 – 6,939.03, down 0.43%→ Dow Jones Industrial Average – 48,892.47, down 0.36% (−179.09 points)→ Nasdaq 100 – 25,552.39, down 1.28%

The U.S. dollar index, down 11% over the past 12 months, rose by almost 1% shortly after Trump announced his choice for Fed chairman.

The sharp rise in the dollar likely spurred the sell-off in metals, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.

"You knew there was going to be some trigger that would cause a technical correction," he said, adding that investors were looking to lock in profits after the parabolic rise in metals prices over the past 12 months.

Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, called the sell-off in metals an "impulsive reaction" to Trump's nomination for Fed chairman. According to him, the correction in metals prices is also natural, given the significant growth in recent months, largely driven by hype and speculation.

Traders consider Warsh to be the strongest fighter against inflation among all the candidates for the post. This raises expectations for a monetary policy that will support the dollar and weaken gold prices denominated in U.S. currency, Bloomberg notes.

• Kevin Warsh previously served on the Fed's board during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2006 to 2011. He joined the board at the age of 35, becoming the youngest member of the regulator's leadership at that time.
• If the U.S. Senate approves Warsh's candidacy, he will succeed Jerome Powell in May 2026.