30.04.202600:07:28UTC+00Silver Pressured by Inflation Risks

Silver traded near $72 an ounce on Thursday, hovering at a three-week low as surging energy prices intensified inflation concerns and reinforced expectations that major central banks may have to raise interest rates. President Donald Trump said the United States would maintain its naval blockade on Iran until Tehran agrees to a nuclear deal, while Iranian officials accused Trump of trying to force the country into submission through economic pressure and fomenting internal divisions.

The protracted conflict in the Middle East and the near-shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz unsettled global markets, leading traders to scale back expectations for interest rate cuts this year and instead begin pricing in the possibility of a hike by 2027. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve left its policy settings unchanged, as widely anticipated, but four officials dissented, highlighting growing divisions over the policy outlook amid heightened uncertainty stemming from the Iran crisis.