Silver Price News: Silver Nudges Higher Ahead of Interest Rate Decisions

Silver prices edged higher to go above the $28.00 an ounce level on Tuesday, helped by gold prices which rebounded after a subdued start to the week.

Silver prices pushed up to $28.45 an ounce on Tuesday, compared with around $27.93 an ounce in late trades on Monday.

The latest uptick for silver follows a markedly bearish second half of July, after prices traded as high as $31.80 an ounce earlier in the month.

Central bank monetary policy comes to the fore this week, with the US Fed widely tipped to maintain the current 5.5% interest rate in a decision expected on Wednesday, with a first rate cut expected in September. The Bank of England is also set to make a decision on interest rates on Thursday, with mixed views in the market on whether it will start to lower rates at this point from the current 5.25%.

For the time being, silver has been unable to break out of a downward-sloping price channel that started in late May, suggesting a potential to test further downside at around $27.00 an ounce in the short-term.

Looking ahead, the markets will be watching out for Thursday’s US ISM manufacturing PMI figures for July, as well as Chinese Caixin manufacturing figures for the same month. Recent monthly manufacturing stats for privately-owned companies have shown solid growth so far in 2024, but more recently worries have surfaced over the health of China’s economy, raising questions over the country’s industrial demand for silver.

These fears over economic growth have prompted weakness in base metals markets, which in turn has weighed on silver sentiment, according to some industry observers.