Silver prices put in a strong performance on Thursday, partially reversing the losses seen on Monday and Tuesday.
Prices touched a low of $22.34 an ounce in the early afternoon session but quickly rebounded as high as $22.80 an ounce.
The market appeared to follow gold’s lead, with the yellow metal jumping as high as $2,050 an ounce in the afternoon, compared with around $2,035 an ounce in late deals Wednesday.
Both precious metals markets got a boost from US figures Thursday which showed a larger-than-expected increase in unemployment claims in the week of February 24. More people seeking benefits raises questions over the health of the economy, making a stronger case for lower interest rates to stimulate growth, an outcome that would support non-yield-bearing assets like gold and silver.
Silver’s performance largely mirrored the previous week when prices made overall losses, albeit mitigated by modest gains at the end of the week.
Looking ahead, eyes will be on the Euro Area inflation figures on Friday morning for any insight into the ECB’s monetary policy stance, while the US ISM Manufacturing PMIs on Friday afternoon could also feed into the demand picture for silver. January’s figure showed an improvement from December’s levels, albeit still showing a contraction in the manufacturing sector.
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.
This publication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a solicitation, offering or recommendation of any security, commodity, derivative, investment management service or advisory service and is not commodity trading advice. This publication does not intend to provide investment, tax or legal advice on either a general or specific basis.
Read our Editorial Guidelines here.
