Silver prices came under downward pressure at the start of the week, falling as low as $22.46 an ounce on Tuesday. That compared with around $22.95 an ounce at the end of the previous week.
The backdrop for silver markets was more subdued at the start of the week, with gold prices struggling to build on the previous week’s gains.
Silver prices did manage to reach $22.70 an ounce on Tuesday, only to slip back to around $22.50 an ounce later in the session.
US durable goods orders figures for January were released Tuesday showing a 6.1% drop from the previous month – larger than the market’s expected 4.5%. The figures were notionally bullish from a monetary policy perspective, as they imply the need for interest rate cuts. However, the implication for industrial demand for silver was negative as durable goods include electronics and medical equipment – both sources of industrial demand for the metal.
Looking at the longer-term charts, silver prices are still in the middle of the range seen over the last 12 months, roughly bounded by $20.00 an ounce at the low end and $26.00 an ounce at the top. More recently in the last four months, $22.00 an ounce has emerged as a tentative support level, leading to speculation that the market could be finding a longer-term base.
In the short-term, the markets will be watching out for Wednesday’s US GDP growth rate figures for Q4 2023 for any signs of monetary policy direction, as well as Japanese industrial production figures for January.4
Frank’s experience covering the commodities markets spans 22 years, with a particular specialism in metals, carbon and energy markets. He has worked as a senior editor for S&P Global Commodity Insights (formerly Platts) and before this, at ICIS-LOR, a part of Reed Business Information (Reed Elsevier), where he covered the petrochemicals markets from 2003 to 2005.
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