Silver Price News: Silver Ends Week Down By 3.6%

Silver prices edged lower on Friday, following softer gold prices, as the precious metals markets were more subdued after a bout of mid-week volatility.

Prices eased as low as $31.23 an ounce on Friday, down from around $32.05 an ounce in late deals on Thursday.

Both gold and silver prices fell sharply on Wednesday after the uncertainty of the US election result passed following a win by Republican nominee Donald Trump. Silver fell as low as $30.87 an ounce on Wednesday. The grey metal managed a modest rebound on Thursday but this quickly ebbed away on Friday, leaving prices lower day-on-day, and down about 3.6% over the week as a whole.

Dollar strengthens after US election, Fed cuts rates

The US dollar strengthened against other major currencies following the US election result, which naturally put downward pressure on dollar-denominated gold and silver prices in the second half of the week.

Thursday saw a modest rebound in silver prices after the US Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points – a bullish factor for non-interest-bearing assets like precious metals. However, the Fed’s move was widely expected and likely fully priced into the market in advance, meaning any gains were limited.

Technical analysis

On the technical charts, silver’s recent losses have pushed the metal down below oblique major support at $31.88 an ounce as of Friday, and well below the 20-day moving average at $32.81 an ounce. This suggests silver’s three-month bullish trend channel may have broken. A Fibonacci retracement analysis based on the August to October bull run for silver suggests tentative support at the 50% retracement area at $30.69 an ounce. That said, silver’s willingness to hold up above the $31.00 an ounce figure last week indicates a degree of stability may have been found. Eyes will be on this level in the short term to see if a supportive base can be confirmed.

Upcoming data to watch out for

Monday is looking thin on economic data releases and the markets will be watching out for Tuesday’s Indian industrial production and manufacturing production figures for September. August’s figures were particularly weak, so a rebound in September would indicate stronger industrial demand in India – one of the world’s largest consumers of silver. Beyond that, eyes will be on Wednesday’s US inflation figures for the latest signals on the outlook for monetary policy by the US Fed.