India, Sept. 4 -- When Zaveri Bazaar opened Tuesday morning, the rate board read 249.9 per gram, a figure that would have seemed unlikely three weeks ago, when silver was holding at 260 and jewellers in Sarafa, Laad Bazaar, and Johari Bazar were still pricing Navratri inventory at the August floor. The metal has now shed nearly four percent in ten days, pushed lower in two sharp corrections that followed the Federal Reserve's evolving rate calculus, and the market's question entering September is whether 249.9 is the new floor or simply the halfway point of a longer move.

The first break came on August 28, the morning after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh spoke at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His remarks, framed around the Fed's readiness t...