Silver Price News: Silver Ticks Higher as Gold Gains

Silver prices nudged higher on Friday to close out the week with a 2.4% gain, taking a modicum of support from higher gold prices over the period.

Prices rose as high as $32.93 an ounce, up from around $32.65 an ounce in late trades on Thursday.

Silver range bound for now

Silver has traded broadly sideways for the last month in a range of roughly $32.00 to $34.00 an ounce, with prices showing no discernible direction. This has been true of gold too, as the precious metals markets took stock of the recent rollercoaster of news flow linked to US trade policy on imports and the resulting uncertainty across financial markets.

Fears of a full-blown global trade war pushed gold prices up to an all-time high of just over $3,500 an ounce in late April, while subsequent negotiations with other countries have gone some way to mitigating those worries. Silver prices have followed suit, albeit with less pronounced gains, and this relative strengthening of the gold price has pushed the gold-to-silver ratio up above 100 in April for the first time in five years.

One of the reasons for silver’s reluctance to fully replicate gold’s gains is its dual role as both a precious and industrial metal. Fears of an economic slowdown provide a clear lift for safe haven gold, while casting a cloud over industrial demand for silver, keeping the grey metal’s price suppressed in a relative sense.

Upcoming data

Tuesday’s Euro Area monthly economic sentiment figures and US inflation numbers will provide key data points for the market to watch this week as traders gauge the likelihood of interest rate cuts by the US Fed in the coming months. A narrow majority of participants expect a US rate cut of at least 25 basis points at the end of July, according to data from interest rate traders.