Odaily News Spot silver has fallen below $72 per ounce, nearing the erasure of its year-to-date gains, with an intraday plunge exceeding 15%. (Jin10)

Odaily News: South Korea's KOSPI index closed down 274.67 points, or 5.26%, at 4949.69 points on Monday, February 2nd. (Jin10)

Odaily News Spot gold has fallen below $4450 per ounce, marking a new low since January 8, representing a retracement of over $430 per ounce from the day's high. (Jin10)

Odaily News On the 2nd, spot silver's intraday decline expanded to 12%, reaching $74.14 per ounce. New York silver futures fell over 5% intraday. Wu Jiang, a senior analyst at SDIC Futures, analyzed that the SDIC UBS Silver Futures (LOF) fund has triggered temporary trading halts multiple times in the past six months due to significant premiums in its secondary market price. From December 2025 to February 2026, the SDIC Silver LOF has accumulated over 25 trading suspensions, with January being particularly concentrated. On February 2nd, trading was again suspended until 10:30 AM due to premium risks. The direct cause of the suspensions is the severe deviation between the fund's secondary market price and its net asset value. Despite the fund company issuing more than 30 consecutive risk warnings and suspending subscriptions in an attempt to cool the market, speculative enthusiasm remains undiminished due to the volatile silver market. This high-premium trading reflects short-term speculation driven by expectations of silver futures price volatility. The trading halts are essentially risk protection measures implemented by the exchange and fund managers for investors. Looking ahead, the short-term oversold condition might attract some bargain-hunting buying. However, from a long-term trend perspective, current silver prices have preliminarily met some conditions for a peak. The ongoing price correction, or the downward trend, may persist until the fourth quarter of this year. (China News Service, CJN)

Odaily News: Michael Brown, a strategist at Pepperstone, stated that the sharp decline in the metals market that began last Friday continued into the Asian session on Monday, with gold, silver, and copper all experiencing significant drops. He pointed out that, similar to the previous rally, the current correction also exhibits characteristics of being "too sharp and too fast." He added that the market is likely on the verge of a so-called "dead cat bounce." However, from a long-term perspective, the bullish logic remains solid: demand from central banks and the retail sector remains healthy, and for investors seeking geopolitical hedging, precious metals will continue to be the preferred choice over the US dollar or US Treasury bonds. The key going forward is whether the market's froth has been sufficiently squeezed out and whether speculative positions have been cleaned up, allowing fundamentals to once again dominate price movements. (Jin10)

Odaily S&P 500 futures extended losses to 1.1%, while Nasdaq futures fell 1.5%. (Jin10)