Caroline Hepker

The price of silver has plunged by as much as 17% today after a two-day recovery.

Silver prices hit an all-time high in late January of more than $120 an ounce.

Since then, though, silver has lost more than a third of its value and is trading at around $75.

The precious metal rally last month was driven by speculative leveraged bets, geopolitical upheaval and concerns over Fed independence.

Now, the Bank of England is widely expected to leave interest rates on hold today as it waits for more evidence that inflation is under control.

Bloomberg's Ewan Potts has a preview.

Now we've got some breaking news this hour.

BNP Paribas has reported unexpectedly high fourth quarter profit and raised some midterm financial targets.

So the French lender achieved net income of 2.97 billion euros in the three months through to December.

The firm's also raised its target for profitability for 2028.

Meanwhile, the Spanish lender BBVA has reported fourth quarter profits of just over €2.5 billion, broadly in line with estimates.

Net interest income came in at over €7 billion, with some €200 million ahead of expectations.

BBVA's shares have doubled over the last 12 months.

And those are our top stories for you this morning.

Looking at the markets, the tech sell-off continues in Asia.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index is down by 1.3%.

Gold and silver continue to decline.

Gold is down by 1.2% this morning.

You've also got copper down today on the LME.

Bitcoin falling to a 10-month low in Asia.