Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities and derivatives research at Bank of America Securities, said the current pullback in precious metals prices is the result of lower recent geopolitical instability, but both gold and silver will rise further in the second half of 2025.

"We have been calling for $3,500 in gold in the first half of this year," Blanch said. "We reached that level and we feel the market is going through a correction that could last for a few months. We remain bullish in the long term and we think that gold will break through $4,000 an ounce in the long term, probably by the second half of the year or 2026, but we are going through a correction because some of the extreme uncertainty we have seen in recent months seems to be fading."

"Gold has been very close to $3,500 a few times, but to break through that level and continue to rise, we need some geopolitical turmoil and some policy uncertainty to rear its head again. We expect this to continue through the end of the year and into 2026, but at this point we think it is unlikely to go straight up from here."

Blanch was then asked about Bank of America's view on silver. Silver prices have lagged behind gold prices due to weak industrial demand.

He added: "If you're modeling silver, the main driver is of course the gold price because silver is largely a precious metal, but it's also about what's happening with industrial activity. Right now, industrial activity is going to be weaker, and that's one of the reasons why silver has lagged when gold prices have risen sharply, and that's really the weaker industrial factor that we're seeing today."

Blanch pointed out: "Silver is related to solar panels, and we still expect a lot of investment in solar panels and the electrification of everything, and we think silver plays a key role. Remember, silver is the best conductor of electricity in the world, so it's going to play a very important role, and we think that in the future once we get back to a more stable industrial activity environment, silver will shine again."