Silver prices continued their upward march on Thursday, taking a lead from strength in the gold price and continuing a rebound from a two-month low seen on Monday.
Prices reached a high of $23.05 an ounce on Thursday before paring the gains later to trade at around $22.75 an ounce. That compares with a two-month low of $21.94 an ounce on Monday.
Silver’s gains outperformed gold in a relative sense this week, and the unexpected strength may have shone a light into the market’s mindset over a longer period. Silver touched lows of $22.00 in mid-November and the overall downward move in January has taken the white metal back down to revisit those lows.
The fact that support held this week at around $22.00 may have been greeted with relief among silver bulls, and has served to underpin the solid gains seen this week as traders looked to buy any dips. Any significant downside from this point would likely put trend support at $21.00 into focus.
The markets continue to mull the likely trajectory for interest rates, which have traditionally been a key factor for precious metals prices.
Data from interest rate traders now points to a roughly 50-50 split on the chances of a US Fed interest rate cut in March, highlighting continuing uncertainty over the timing of any monetary policy changes. Earlier in January, the implied chances of a cut in March were considerably higher at close to 90%.
Looking ahead, Friday is expected to see the release of monthly US Personal Income and Personal Spending figures for December, providing further clues 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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