wsj.com - An ounce of silver is now worth more than a barrel of oil
An Ounce of Silver Is Now Worth More Than a Barrel of Oil
Neither investors nor industrial buyers can get enough of the precious metal, while a glut of crude has depressed fuel prices

By Ryan Dezember, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 27, 2025

In a year in which precious metals shined, silver stole the show.

Silver’s price blew through a 45-year-old record and has more than doubled in 2025. At $76.486, a troy ounce of silver is worth more than a barrel of oil in futures markets, where U.S. crude ended Friday at $56.74.

Aside from two brief stretches in the chaos of 2020’s Covid crash, that hasn’t happened since West Texas Intermediate oil futures began trading in 1983. Neither investors nor industry can get enough of the precious metal, while a glut of oil has swamped energy markets and depressed fuel prices.

See the linked post for the chart.

discussion.fool.com - I have a silver coin sell me a barrel of oil

Silver is also in demand from jewelers, medical-device makers, electric-vehicle manufacturers, data-center developers and especially solar-panel factories. The solar industry has been consuming nearly 30% of annual production from mining and recycling…

Either U.S. drillers, who have been pumping a record of about 13.5 million barrels a day this year, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has also been boosting output, will have to pull back or risk worsening the glut. That is especially true, according to analysts, if Russia-Ukraine peace talks or a resolution to the U.S. standoff with Venezuela loosens restrictions on oil exports… [end quote]

Over the years, when long-held ratios suddenly reverse it turns out to be temporary in the long run. When the yield of TIPS suddenly rose above the yield of Treasuries for the first time in October 2008 I bought TIPS. When oil went into contango in March 2020 (the Covid shock) I bought XOM.

Wendy