Silver prices eased slightly lower on Tuesday in a largely lacklustre day for the precious metal.
Prices touched a low of $24.40 an ounce before trading at around $24.47 an ounce by late afternoon. That compares with around $24.70 an ounce in late trades on Monday.
Prices did manage a modest rally through the middle of the day, taking a lead from a spike in gold prices. However, gold’s rally quickly went into reverse, putting downward pressure on silver prices though the afternoon session.
The day’s action was partly driven by currency effects, with the US dollar first falling in value against other currencies before rebounding later in the day, weighing on the precious metals complex.
All in all, silver’s moves on Tuesday were minor compared with last week’s dramatic surge to 11-month highs of over $25.75 an ounce, which came as the markets increased bets on US interest rate cuts in the coming months.
With silver prices lagging gold in recent days, the gold/silver ratio has increased to around 89, compared with 85-86 in mid-March. The ratio reached a high of almost 91 in late February, just before silver’s rally to an 11-month high over the following three weeks.
Looking ahead, Euro Area economic sentiment figures for March are due out on Wednesday, and the markets will be watching to see if figures have improved after recent month-on-month declines in January and February.
Then on Thursday, updated US GDP growth rates for Q4 2023 will be released, while US initial jobless claims figures for the week ending March 23 will provide a further update on the state of the US economy.
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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