I woke up this morning to a nasty one. US tech stocks down 5% overnight. Gold down over 3%. Silver down over 8%. Platinum down over 6%. The kind of morning that makes you double-check your phone screen.

But this is just a blip in the road of an insane bull run for the precious metals. In fact, what caused this may very well be the catalyst for the precious metals to continue their run.

Check out the full video that breaks down exactly what happened and what it means for precious metals.

The Jobs Report That Broke the Market

On Friday, the US released its non-farm payroll data for May. This is the most important employment report of the month, and the number that came out was a big one. The US economy added 172,000 jobs, more than double the market estimate of 85,000.

So why did markets crater?

It comes down to interest rate expectations. More jobs mean more people spending money. More spending means more inflation. More inflation means the US Federal Reserve cannot justify cutting interest rates. And when interest rates stay higher for longer, two things happen.

First, the companies themselves. Interest rates represent the cost of their debt, and rising rates mean rising repayments, which eats directly into profits. Second, the leveraged traders. Hedge funds and retail investors who have loaded up on shares using margin loans or borrowed money now face higher debt costs. Some of them will take profits off the table to reduce their exposure. When enough of them do it at once, you get what we saw overnight.

But the Jobs Data Is Not What It Looks Like

Before you take that 172,000 number at face value, let me show you what's actually inside it.

The first thing I'd flag is the question of data integrity. The head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics was fired in August of last year, just hours after releasing a July 2025 jobs report that came in below market expectations. Trump publicly accused her of faking the figures to make his administration look bad. Make of that what you will, but it's worth keeping in mind when a surprise-to-the-upside number lands during a politically sensitive period.

Now let's look at the composition of the jobs themselves. Over 70,000 of the new roles came from leisure and hospitality, covering food services, bars and restaurants. These are businesses that naturally spike during summer months. They're typically low-paid, casual positions with no career stability or progression.

There's also a World Cup effect worth considering here. The FIFA World Cup is currently running, and event-driven demand for vendors, hospitality staff, bar workers and gig economy roles like Uber drivers spikes significantly around major tournaments. These are temporary positions by nature, not structural employment growth. They will not be there next month.

On top of that, 55,000 of the new jobs were in government, mostly local government. These are taxpayer-funded positions. They keep people off the unemployment line, but they're not a sign of a private sector economy firing on all cylinders.

Then there's the U3 versus U6 gap, and this is the one I keep watching. U3 is the headline unemployment rate, people with no jobs at all. U6 includes people who are forced to work part-time or hold multiple jobs because they cannot find a single full-time role. What the data is showing is that while U3 remains steady, U6 is quietly rising. Underemployment is increasing even as unemployment holds. That is a weakening jobs market, not a strengthening one.

Tech Was Already a Bubble Waiting to Pop

The jobs report was the trigger, but the conditions for this sell-off were already in place.

Since March, the Nasdaq had been trading in an almost parabolic upward channel. Semiconductors, AI stocks and tech more broadly had seen an insane rally, and over recent weeks we saw retail traders piling in with increasing leverage, chasing the move to the upside. That is classic bubble behaviour, and historically it never ends well.

Overnight, the Nasdaq broke down out of that channel to the downside.

I've seen this pattern before. There are echoes of the dotcom bubble and the lead-up to the 2008 crash in what we're watching right now. Parabolic moves fuelled by leverage, retail FOMO and a narrative around a transformative technology. It always feels different this time. It never is.

What History Says About Gold in This Environment

Here's the part that matters most for precious metals investors.

When interest rates rise, gold often dips in the short term. We're seeing that today. But the 1970s tell a very different story over the long run.

Looking at the charts from that decade, gold and interest rates both trended upward together over the full period. Yes, there were short-term moments where a rate rise immediately pulled gold down. But zoom out and the long-term direction was the same for both. Gold went from around 50 USD to over 800 USD across the decade.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones essentially went nowhere for ten years. Stocks were not the place to be.

The negative correlation between rising rates and falling gold prices is real in the short term. But it does not hold over the long term, and that is exactly why my focus at Liberty Bullion is on long-term wealth protection, not short-term trading. I am not trying to help people make a quick buck day trading precious metals. This is about parking capital somewhere it will genuinely be protected.

Where Does Your Money Go From Here?

Let me run through the options quickly.

The Bank

Leaving money in the bank is a guaranteed loss. The bank will pay you below the real rate of inflation, full stop.

Property

Australian real estate is carrying a lot of headwinds right now. The recent federal budget changes around negative gearing, combined with stamp duty, maintenance costs, mortgage repayments and a high inflation environment, make it a difficult proposition.

Crypto

I released a video about six months ago where I sold all my crypto to buy silver instead. At that point Bitcoin was sitting at 95,000 USD per coin and silver was around 50 USD per ounce. Bitcoin has since dropped as low as 60,000 USD while silver is up 30 to 35% from where I bought it. With crypto's strong correlation to US tech stocks and where we are in the four-year cycle, I'm very bearish.

Check out the full video if you're keen to see the breakdown!

Government bonds

They called these certificates of confiscation in the 1970s, and with good reason. The government pays you below the real rate of inflation. That is a guaranteed loss dressed up in official language.

Precious metals

And then there's precious metals. With silver projected to hit 500 USD per ounce within the next few years and platinum positioned to outperform from here, the choice for me is clear.

What a time to be alive.

Sam from Liberty Bullion