Silver Price News: Silver Holds Flat At 11-Week Low

Silver prices held steady on Friday, continuing to trade level with Thursday’s 11-week low, as the markets waited for fresh direction.

Silver traded in a range of $27.62 to $28.03 an ounce for most of the day. Prices did briefly spike to $28.28 an ounce, although sustained trading at this level was not observed. That compared with Thursday’s range of $27.49 to $28.92 an ounce.

Silver prices have shown a capacity to test successively lower troughs in recent weeks, as evidenced by a descending channel since highs of over $32.00 an ounce in May. Absent any fresh bullish drivers, this trend is likely to bring the $27.00 an ounce level into focus in the coming weeks, representing the lower boundary of the downward channel.

US figures released last week painted a stronger-than-expected picture of the US economy, including GDP, consumer sentiment and inflation figures. While the latest data would normally imply a delay before interest rate cuts, the interest rate markets appeared unmoved and are fully pricing in a first rate cut by the US Fed in September, followed by two more cuts before the end of the year.

Since the precious metals markets already anticipate this outcome, rate cuts in the autumn are unlikely to send gold and silver prices soaring. But equally, the prospect of looser monetary policy should help to underpin prices and avoid significant downside, other things being equal. Of more importance to gold will be the extent to which central banks continue to purchase volume, while silver’s fortunes are partly linked to industrial demand, which has taken a knock in July in several economies.

On the economic data front, the markets will be looking ahead to Tuesday’s Euro Area GDP growth figures for Q2, as well as the US JOLTs job openings figures for June.