Call it a silver squeeze

Summary

Marketplace Morning Report – "Call it a Silver Squeeze"

Date: October 21, 2025
Host: David Brancaccio

---

Episode Overview

This brisk episode (under 10 minutes) covers the overnight news with a particular focus on significant shifts in the silver market. Host David Brancaccio explores why silver prices have surged to all-time highs—surpassing gold's rally—driven by a genuine physical shortage. Additional segments cover Coca-Cola’s mini can strategy amid changing consumer habits, Brazil’s controversial approval for Amazon oil drilling, and a global tech outage caused by AWS.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Silver Squeeze: What’s Driving Record Prices?

[00:40 – 04:07]

• Gold hit a major milestone by surpassing $4,000/oz, but silver’s meteoric rise is the real story.
  • Quote: "Atomic symbol Au has been getting love from investors...but let's spare a thought here for ag." (David Brancaccio, 00:28)
• Silver’s Physical Shortage:
  • “At the beginning of the year, something weird was happening in the silver market. Huge volumes of silver bars were being flown from London to New York,” due to profit opportunities created by President Trump’s tariffs and spiking US prices. (Savannah Peters, 01:36)
  • The process later reversed, indicating volatile physical demand.
• Special Demand Spikes:
  • The Diwali holiday in India intensified the physical shortage, nearly depleting the London exchange.
  • Quote: “That unusual flow of silver into the US in early 2025, plus a spike in demand for silver during the Diwali holiday in India, helps explain why the London exchange nearly ran out of physical silver last week.” (Savannah Peters, 02:21)
• Underlying Structural Issues:
  • Not enough investment in new silver mines for a decade.
  • “Global demand for silver has been outstripping supply since 2020.” (Savannah Peters, 02:35)
  • The Silver Institute’s CEO, Michael D’Arrenzo, predicts the market deficit to extend at least through 2026.
    • Quote: “Quite frankly, right now where we speak, this fifth year will more than likely extend into a sixth year of a structural market deficit in 2026.” (Michael D’Arrenzo, 02:47)
  • Most silver is a byproduct of mining for gold, lead, or zinc—so supply is slow to react to rising prices.
    • Quote: “There’s no fast resolution to this. It’s hard to discover silver and—it’s even harder to build a mine and then get the necessary permits.” (Michael D’Arrenzo, 03:09)
  • Silver production is 800 million ounces behind demand.
• Industrial Demand & Broad Impact:
  • Unlike gold, about 60% of silver demand is industrial: soldering, catalysts, smartphones, electric vehicles, etc.
  • Quote: “Silver goes into just about anything with an on and off switch.” (Ian Lang, 03:48)
  • Implication: Prolonged shortage could make technology from solar panels to AI data centers more expensive.

2. Coca-Cola’s Mini Can Strategy

[04:07 – 06:23]

• Consumer Behavior & Health Trends:
  • As sugar awareness—partly driven by weight loss drugs—increases, Coca-Cola finds success selling smaller (7.5 oz) “mini cans” for about $1.29 individually.
  • Quote: “Consumers make their impulse purchases in convenience stores, so they're going in because they want a little bit of a treat.” (Lynn Dornblazer, 04:52)
  • Many buyers aren’t checking price per ounce, so the low sticker price is compelling even if it’s more expensive per unit.
  • Quote: “It makes a lot of sense to almost have these like trial sizes in a way just to get people to give things a whirl.” (Neil Saunders, 05:46)
  • Diet Coke Lime and Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry are both returning in limited runs this fall.

3. Brazil Approves Oil Drilling Near Amazon

[08:13 – 08:58]

• Petrobras wins approval to drill for oil near the Amazon after five years of regulatory battles.
• Environmentalists worry about spill risks and criticize policy ahead of the COP30 summit.
  • Quote: “Some fear that...sea currents could mean any oil spills would have disastrous impacts on the Amazon’s biodiversity.” (Ione Wells, 08:34)
  • The International Energy Agency stresses that no new oil projects are compatible with net zero by 2050.

4. AWS Outage Update

[08:58 – 09:27]

• Amazon Web Services apologized and marked as “resolved” a global service outage which disrupted social media, food delivery, and banking platforms worldwide.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Silver’s Squeeze:
  • “There’s no fast resolution to this. It’s hard to discover silver and—it’s even harder to build a mine and then get the necessary permits.”
    — Michael D’Arrenzo, 03:09
  • “Silver goes into just about anything with an on and off switch.”
    — Ian Lang, 03:48
• On Coca-Cola’s Mini Cans:
  • “Consumers make their impulse purchases in convenience stores, so they're going in because they want a little bit of a treat.”
    — Lynn Dornblazer, 04:52
  • “It makes a lot of sense to almost have these like trial sizes in a way just to get people to give things a whirl.”
    — Neil Saunders, 05:46
• On the Amazon Oil Project:
  • “Some fear that...sea currents could mean any oil spills would have disastrous impacts on the Amazon’s biodiversity.”
    — Ione Wells, 08:34

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:40–04:07] – Silver’s physical shortage, shifting demand, and industrial impact
• [04:07–06:23] – Coke’s mini can sales and changing consumption patterns
• [08:13–08:58] – Brazil authorizes Amazon oil drilling
• [08:58–09:27] – Global AWS outage update

---

Tone and Language

The episode maintains Marketplace’s trademark mix of brisk fact-delivery and approachable, conversational tone, succinctly explaining the intersection of business, politics, and daily life.

---

This summary captures all major news and takeaways, making it useful for those who missed the episode or seek an in-depth yet digestible briefing.

Transcript

[A]

Introducing your new Dell PC with the Intel Core Ultra processor. It helps you handle a lot, even when your holiday to do list gets to be a lot like organizing your holiday shopping and searching for great holiday deals and customer questions and customers requesting custom things. Plus planning the perfect holiday dinner for vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and Uncle Mike's carnivore diet. Luckily you can get a PC with all day battery life to help you get it all done. That's the power of a Dell PC with Intel inside, backed by Dell's price match guarantee. Get yours [e-mail] holiday terms and conditions apply. See dell.com for details. This podcast is supported by Odoo. Some say Odoo business management software is like fertilizer for businesses because the simple, efficient software promotes growth. Others say Odoo is like a magic beanstalk because it scales with you and is magically affordable. And some describe Odoo's programs for manufacturing, accounting and more as building blocks for creating a custom software suite. So Odoo is fertilizer Magic Beanstalk building blocks for business Odoo exactly what businesses need. Sign [e-mail] that's O D O O.com atomic symbol Au has been getting love from investors during these uncertain times, but let's spare a thought here for ag, I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. We're coming up on two weeks since gold crossed above $4,000 an ounce for the first time at a time of uncertainty. Maybe gold would hold value if things were to fall apart is part of the logic now. Silver is not chopped liver either. It hit an all time high last week and it's gone up gold this year. Helping fuel that rally is an actual physical shortage, marketplace's Savannah Peters reports.

[B]

At the beginning of the year, something weird was happening in the silver market. Huge volumes of silver bars were being flown from the Metals International trading hub in London to New York. People literally were putting metal on airplanes and shipping it across. Maria Smirnova is with Sprott Asset Management. She says silver is heavy. Shipping it by air across an ocean normally just isn't profitable. But fear over President Trump's tariffs was driving up silver prices on the US market. And that's starting to happen the other way now. People are putting metal on planes to go back, Smirnova says. That unusual flow of silver into the US in early 2025, plus a spike in demand for silver during the Diwali holiday in India, helps explain why the London exchange nearly ran out of physical silver last week. But underlying all of that is a longer term shortage of the white metal. There hasn't been enough investment in silver mines in the last 10 years. Global demand for silver has been outstripping supply since 2020, according to the industry trade group the Silver Institute.

[A]

Quite frankly, right now where we speak, this fifth year will more than likely extend into a sixth year of a structural market deficit in 2026.

[B]

CEO Michael Duranzo says most silver mining happens as a byproduct of gold, lead or zinc mining, meaning supply isn't all that responsive to swings in demand.

[A]

So there's no fast resolution to this. It's hard to discover silver and and it's even harder to build a mine and then get the necessary permits and the final green light to go ahead and start production.

[B]

D' Arenzo says silver production has fallen about 800 million ounces behind global demand. And unlike its flashier cousin gold, on.

[A]

Our demand tables you'll see that we're 60% industrial.

[B]

Uses for silver uses like soldering uses.

[A]

Catalysts, smartphones in some parts of electric vehicles.

[B]

Ian Lang, an economist at the Colorado School of Mines, says silver goes into just about anything with an on and off switch. So if demand keeps outstripping supply, everything from solar panels to AI data centers are going to get more expensive to build. I'm Savannah peters for Marketplace.

[A]

45 years ago, March of 1980, the Billionaire Hunt Brothers of Texas cornered the silver market, driving the price up to nearly what it is today. This prompted limits on how much borrowing could be used to buy a commodity silver. Thursday, they called it Coca Cola reports quarterly sales and profits shortly. Even though we're drinking less sugar, its profits had been solid one factor charging more for little tiny cans. Coke now says it will sell seven and a half ounce mini cans one at a time. But there's a price for going small. Marketplace's Megan McCarty Carino has more at.

[B]

Not even a full cup's worth. Coke's mini cans are just a quick hit of carbonated indulgence, says Mintel analyst Lynn Dornblazer.

[A]

Consumers make their impulse purchases in convenience stores, so they're going in because they want a little bit of a treat.

[B]

And offering a little bit is a selling point, says Randy Chapman, a consumer goods consultant with Alex Partners. He notes about 10% of U.S. consumers are on weight loss drugs, and many have become conscious of sugar and artificial sweeteners.

[A]

And these seven and a half sizes give an opportunity for these folks to continue to drink what they enjoy drinking, but in a smaller size mini cans.

[B]

Will also have a snack sized price around $1.29 each.

[A]

There's really not many options available below that $2 price point, Chapman says.

[B]

Most consumers aren't calculating price per ounce when they pop into the corner store. That low stake sticker price could also convince consumers to take a chance on new fl, says retail strategist Neil Saunders at Global Data.

[A]

It makes a lot of sense to almost have these like trial sizes in a way just to get people to give things a whirl.

[B]

Coca Cola has confirmed Diet Coke Lime is returning this fall with Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry coming later this year. I'm Megan McCarty Carino for Marketplace.

[A]

This is the story of the one as a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Grainger, because when a drive belt gets damaged, Grainger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs, and next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click Granger or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Introducing your new Dell PC Powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor, it helps you handle a lot even when your holiday to do list gets to be a lot because it's built with an all day battery plus powerful AI features that help you do it all with ease, from editing images to drafting emails to summarizing large documents to multitasking so you can organize your holiday shopping and make custom holiday decor and search for great holiday deals and respond to holiday requests and customer questions and customers requesting custom things. And plan the perfect holiday dinner for vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and Uncle Mike's carnivore diet. Luckily, you can get a PC that helps you do it all faster so that you can get it all done. That's the power of a Dell PC with Intel inside, backed by Dell's price match guaranteed. Get yours [e-mail] deals, terms and conditions apply. See Dell.com for details. The Brazilian oil giant Petrobras has a green light to start drilling for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River. The decision follows a five year battle for that permission. Critics say the approval casts doubt over Brazil's green ambitions. Ione Wells is the BBC's correspondent in Sao Paulo.

[B]

The site where Petra Bras will drill in the sea is about 500 km from the mouth of the Amazon River. The company says it demonstrated that it had a robust environmental protection structure in place. Oil exploration in the region has been supported by Brazil's president, Lula da Silva. However, the plans have been opposed by many environmental organizations. Some fear that the proximity to the Amazon river and rainforest, coupled with sea currents, could mean any oil spills would have disastrous impacts on the Amazon's biodiversity. Others have pointed out it could undermine Brazil's climate leadership ahead of hosting the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon in November, and that the International Energy Agency has been clear no new oil projects can be approved if net zero is to be reached by 2050.

[A]

That's the BBC's Ione Wells and Amazon's remote computing service AWS is now marking the big mess it caused yesterday as resolved the technical issue early yesterday had knocked offline social media companies, food delivery firms, some banks, car services and more around the world. In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio with the Marketplace Morning Report from apm, American Public Media.

[B]

Hey everyone, it's Bridget, host of Million Bazillion, a podcast from Marketplace. You've probably heard about the government shutdown, but if you're anything like our young caller Esme, whose dad is a federal worker, you might still have questions. I've noticed that my dad hasn't been going to work and I don't know.

[A]

When the government shutdown will stop and.

[B]

My dad can go back to work. We can help tune into our recent episode where we explain what you and the young ones in your life need to know about government shutdowns. Listen to Million Bazillion on your favorite podcast app.