Pressure on precious metals continued to build on Friday with silver prices plunging over 8%.

Rising Treasury yields curtailed investor appetite for gold and silver following a strong start to the new year earlier this week.

Gold lost 3.55% to $1,845.74 per ounce at 12:45 am ET, while silver plunged 8.18% to $24.96 at the same time. At the same time, platinum dropped 4.99% to $1,065.74 an ounce. Palladium was down 2.81% to $2,361.24 per ounce at the time.