Silver at $67 Now Buys a Barrel of Oil and the Silver-Oil Ratio May Be Headed Much Higher
While Wall Street fixates on stocks and AI hype, a quiet but historic shift is unfolding in the real assets that actually power the world
- Silver just did something historic: one ounce of silver now buys more than a barrel of oil. That’s not normal, that’s not common, and it’s definitely not something you hear about on the nightly financial news
- Silver closed near $67 per oz, marking yet another nominal all-time high close. Bull markets don’t announce themselves with fireworks—they creep higher while most people are still skeptical
- Supply deficits aren’t a theory anymore: five consecutive years of silver shortages, tight inventories in London and Shanghai, and rising lease rates are flashing the same warning light Wall Street ignored before past metals runs
- Mainstream media finally changed its tune, with CNBC openly discussing triple-digit silver scenarios—usually a sign the narrative has cracked, not that the move is over
- The silver-to-oil ratio is blowing minds, especially when you zoom out historically. In 1893, one ounce of silver bought over four barrels of oil—far higher than today—and almost nobody alive knew that until now
- Gold quietly ended the week near $4,337 per oz, sitting just below breakout territory again. In Christmas-thinned markets, breakouts have a habit of sneaking up on people
- The gold-to-silver ratio fell to ~64, signaling silver continues to outperform—classic behavior when precious metals enter their stronger, more emotional phase
- Stocks are losing ground in real terms, with the S&P 500 breaking down when priced in silver ounces. Nominal gains look great—until you measure what actually holds purchasing power
- Platinum is the sleeper most people missed, already hitting new all-time highs in over 113 currencies and threatening $2,000 per oz as supply tightens and policy narratives flip bullish
- The real story isn’t prices—it’s trust: too many financial promises, too few real assets, and capital is finally moving toward things that can’t be printed, frozen, or reprogrammed overnight
A rare price relationship is flashing a warning Wall Street prefers to ignore: silver is quietly outperforming oil, and history suggests this ratio can go multiples higher from here.
The shift in precious metals market narratives was on full display in Western media this week.
A few of those examples in a second, but first, a moment of bullish celebration is in order.
I know silver bulls out there know their nominal price close on the week.
If you have young children in your household, you probably know the two key numbers as well 6 -- 7.
Every bull market's walls of worry climbs are similar in that bullish narratives change and often become common knowledge in the markets better understanding for why climbing price points and relative valuations make sense.
This precious metals market is no different.
For the first example this week, let's turn to now silver triple digit headline article publishing CNBC, as they spoke with long time COMEX derivative trader Phillip Streible in the middle of this week.
Probably the most important point Phil made in that clip was the one ounce of silver bullion now buying more than a barrel of crude oil in nominal prices terms.
Market onlookers, including myself, have to go back in time to figure out just how unprecedented this is not merely within our lifetimes but for many many lifetimes.
Yesterday morning, I went on the FACE analytics market morning podcast to speak with long time trader Dale Pinkert and this silver vs oil ratio trade topic was one of the items we discussed.
I'll leave a full link to our 28 minute discussion in the show notes below.
And I will be back, correcting my mistake when speaking to him, now that I have been gifted the historical data. It's probably going to blow you away, as it did myself when I saw it last evening.
I'll be right back with that.
My precious metals and financial data wrangling friend down under, Nick Laird of GoldChartsRUs.com probably saw that clip and pulled the long term silver vs oil barrel data.
And I have to be humble, I totally underestimated silver in the late 19th Century.
The bottom half of this chart shows that for a time in 1893 one ounce of silver peaked in buying up to 4 and a half barrels of oil at the time.
Almost all of the investing world doesn't have this historic data, and the idea that this ratio has ever gone that high, nearly four times the peak of now or even the January 1980 silver bull peak.
Well, what I'm telling you is that this ratio could go a lot higher to come.
Stick around on the other side of this break we'll look at still stubbornly high and climbing London lease rates for not only silver, but we'll also have listen in on bullish narrative changes for platinum prices to come. We'll be right back.
- The spot silver price closed the week up near $67 oz bid having nominally broke above that nominal number again in the today's trading. Another nominal record price high close for silver.
- The spot gold price ended the week at $4337 oz bid technically looking like it could again break out to new nominal price highs as soon as next week's Christmas shortened trading week.
- The spot gold silver ratio ends this week at down at 64 oz of spot silver to afford one troy ounce of spot gold.
In a precious metals world which appears to be breaking out of its Western World decades running over-leveraged derivative price suppression schemes.
Fantastic supply demand factors and structural supply deficits aside, important to remember that the likely final driver of these precious metals markets into mania phases will be the coming capital flows into sectors knowing the world is not going to be bale to keep it over promises in real terms.
The still historically overvalued and AI tech concentrated S&P 500 stock market index continues breaking down in silver troy ounce terms.
This is kind of how I envision the years to come as silver and other precious metals outperform on a relative basis to stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. I know nominally prices look high, but in real value terms we have a long way to go in the bullion over other asset classes trade.
Bloomberg terminals continue highlighting the stubbornly high lease rates for silver in London.
Publishing this chart this week, illustrating while lease rates on gold have dipped, the opposite is true for the tight 1,000 oz silver market in London.
That information is corroborated by other sources on the other side of the world tweeting to follower in this example in Japan.
Bruce Ikemizu tweeted still high lease rates not merely for silver, but also palladium, and specially platinum.
Platinum has been threatening the nominal $2000 oz spot price mark of late, and has already broken out to new nominal price highs in over 113 fiat currencies the world over this past week. Platinum's all time nominal price high of around $2300 oz was hit in early 2008 in then much stronger fiat US dollar terms.
For some new platinum bull market narratives to consider, the former head of Goldman Sachs' commodity desk, the silver shorts are the ETFs fame, Jeff Curry went on CNBC this week to pound the table on platinum bullishness heading into 2026.
That will be all for this Week's SD Bullion Market Update.
REFERENCES:
Jeff Currie on CNBC with Platinum Bullishness
https://youtu.be/AWWClGqz_3I?si=bK52G6nxDXHJAdAe
Silver could hit $3-digits oz in 2026, here's why.. | Phil Streible on CNBC
https://youtu.be/IiumRs3gbGE?si=VLCaE3zg-lVdO_zz&t=9
