Silver prices eased back slightly on Thursday, having made sharp gains the previous day in line with surging gold prices.
Silver touched a low of $24.77 an ounce on Thursday, compared with around $25.04 an ounce in late deals on Wednesday.
The modest pullback came after silver prices made hefty gains of almost a dollar an ounce on Wednesday, with the market taking a lead from gold, which recaptured most of Tuesday’s losses.
Both gold and silver prices fell on Thursday after US producer prices increased in February and inflation came in at a higher-than-expected reading, prompting traders to dial back bets on a June start for the US Fed’s much-anticipated interest rate cutting cycle.
The latest round of figures boosted the value of the US dollar against other currencies and sent US Treasury yields higher, weighing on silver prices.
Silver’s modest losses on Thursday came after prices rose to a 3.5-month high on Wednesday, pulled higher by gold’s surge to an all-time high of $2,195 an ounce last week.
The markets will be watching out for US economic sentiment figures due for release Friday, as well as industrial production figures for February.
Industrial production figures matter for silver, with roughly half of global demand for the metal coming from industrial applications such as solar panels, electrical circuits, batteries and energy storage, semiconductors, medical appliances, nuclear reactors, aerospace technologies and water purification systems.
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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