Zhi Tong Cai Jing·2026-01-08 14:51Core Viewpoint - The precious metals market is experiencing a liquidity shock triggered by the rebalancing of the Bloomberg Commodity Index, leading to significant declines in gold and silver prices and related mining stocks [1] Group 1: Market Performance - Gold and silver stocks opened lower, with Hecla Mining (HL.US) down over 5%, First Majestic Silver (AG.US) and Endeavour Silver (EXK.US) down over 4%, and other companies like Coeur Mining (CDE.US), Pan American Silver (PAAS.US), and Gold Fields (GFI.US) down over 2% [1] - Spot silver fell over 4% to $74.48, while spot gold decreased by 0.5% to $4,433.37 [1] Group 2: Index Rebalancing Impact - The current adjustment in the precious metals market is directly linked to the annual weight rebalancing of the Bloomberg Commodity Index, which started on January 8 and will continue until January 14 [1] - The weight of gold in the index has been reduced from 20.4% to 14.9%, while silver's weight has been significantly cut from 9.6% to 3.94%, forcing passive funds tracking the index to make mechanical position adjustments [1] Group 3: Analyst Insights - Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Hsueh noted that the rebalancing is unfavorable for precious metals but beneficial for oil [1] - Silver is expected to face the largest selling pressure from the rebalancing, followed by aluminum and gold [1] - Hsueh estimates that a sale of 2.4 million ounces of gold could lead to a price drop of 2.5%-3.0%, depending on the sensitivity model of the ETFs used and the time window considered [1]