Silver slipped about 1.6% on Thursday, falling toward the $82 level during European trading as the US Dollar made a noticeable comeback. The drop followed two key economic updates from the United States that reminded markets the economy is still holding up better than many expected.

The private payrolls report from ADP showed that 63,000 jobs were added in February. That figure came in above analyst forecasts and eased some of the recent concerns about a weakening labor market. At the same time, the Institute for Supply Management reported that its Services PMI rose to 56.1 last month from 53.8 previously, signaling solid expansion across the services sector and pushing expectations for a near-term Federal Reserve rate cut further into the future.

The US Dollar Index rebounded to around 99.10, gaining roughly 0.35% on the day. A stronger dollar often works against silver because commodities priced in dollars become more expensive for buyers using other currencies, which can weigh on demand.

At the same time, geopolitical tensions helped prevent a deeper decline. Ongoing military friction involving the United States, Israel, and Iran kept some safe-haven interest in the market. That backdrop has been broadly supportive for precious metals, although it wasn’t strong enough to fully counter the dollar’s rebound on Thursday.

From a broader perspective, the stronger-than-expected economic data weakens the argument for the Federal Reserve to start cutting rates anytime soon. As expectations for rate cuts fade, interest-bearing assets tend to look more appealing compared with non-yielding metals like silver. Unless market sentiment shifts sharply toward risk-off conditions, that dynamic could keep pressure on XAG/USD in the near term.

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