Silver fell 8 percent on Wednesday, breaking a three-day rebound from last week's 25 percent decline and dragging gold as crude oil dived and after China's industrial output growth eased much more than expected. Silver's losses accelerated as energy products plummeted, leading a sharp decline across the commodity sector. US government data showing rising crude oil and gasoline inventories triggered a steep sell-off in gasoline, crude oil and heating oil futures.
Spot silver was down 8.4 percent at $35.21 an ounce by 3:13 pm EDT (1913 GMT), after it initially rose as much as 2.7 percent. Spot gold fell 1 percent to $1,501.40 an ounce. COMEX gold futures for June delivery settled down $15.50 at $1,501.40, after trading from $1,495.40 to $1,526.80. Platinum group metals fell in line with the rest of the commodities complex. Spot platinum fell 1.1 percent to $1,773.24, while palladium fell 1.7 percent to $712.72.