How to trade the market spiral as investors dump gold, silver and oil in Stock News 05/02/2026 Precious metals extended losses on Monday, with analysts and strategists flagging U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice of Kevin Warsh as successor to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as a key trigger to the latest downturn. Spot gold prices traded nearly 2% lower at $4,771.25 per ounce during early European trading hours, deepening losses from a historic rout on Friday, when it fell more than 9% to notch its sharpest one-day drop since 1983. Spot silver prices dipped 1% at $83.81 per ounce at around 11:39 a.m. London time (6:39 a.m. ET). The white metal fell over 31% on Friday, registering its worst daily performance since 1980. The worsening metals rout coincides with an oil price slump and a broader market downturn, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index tracking losses from Asia-Pacific markets. U.S. stock futures were also seen starting the trading week in negative territory. 5-10% split “Our thesis all along has been pretty simple,” Grace Peters, global investment strategist at JPMorgan Private Bank, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday. “When we’re looking at the portfolio, we want to have geopolitical hedges, safe-haven assets, Treasurys, dollar, gold — are not all performing in the same way and we do think gold is the best geopolitical hedge,” Peters said. Factors such as central bank buying and support from institutional investors are likely to push gold prices higher through 2026, Peters said, noting that her team has maintained its forecast of $6,500 per ounce by year-end. When asked about the investor rationale for owning gold, Peters said that while developed markets are loaded up on the yellow metal, emerging markets’ central banks are not, citing Poland and Brazil as examples. “When you think about the institutional, indeed the retail investors, gold is just over 3% of [assets under management] when you think about equities, fixed income and alternatives,” Peters said. “I think a 5-10% position across portfolios is where we could feasibly get to, and when we look at our own clients’ books, they are not there on gold,” she added. Fed worries Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Syz Group, said the sell-off started at the end of January after a month dominated by investor fears that the Fed may soon lose its independence and expectations that the U.S. dollar would continue to slide, among other concerns. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major rivals, traded up 0.2% on Monday morning. It has shed 1.2% so far this year, after dropping more than 9% in 2025. “And that led to one big trade, which was long commodities, long precious metals, long value, long emerging market, and so on. All of this obviously paying leverage,” Monchau told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday. Yet, the surprise nomination of Warsh, who is seen as something of a “hawkish dove,” prompted a rethink for investors. One core issue for market participants, Monchau said, is that Warsh has advocated for the Fed to reduce the size of its balance sheet. “As we all know, markets are addicted to liquidity and currently this is the big stress. Also, there are a lot of uncertainties in terms of timing. He needs to be elected as one of the Fed members and then he needs to be elected a Fed chair,” Monchau said. “There is also a question mark about Mr Powell staying on the board or not … so a lot of uncertainties a