Silver Price News: Silver Tops $31.00 Mark

Silver prices were marginally higher on Tuesday, rising in line with modest gains for gold, which took the yellow metal to a three-month high.

Silver prices rose as high as $31.01 an ounce on Tuesday, up from around $30.66 an ounce in late trades on Monday, before easing back to around $30.83 an ounce later in the session – a day-on-day gain of around 0.9%.

Markets mull expected US trade tariffs

The threat of US trade tariffs represents something of a mixed bag for precious metals markets. On the one hand, they create uncertainties over the economy which can boost interest in safe havens such as gold and silver. On the other, tariffs are seen as pushing inflation higher, limiting the scope for central banks to cut interest rates – a bearish factor for non-interest-bearing assets like precious metals.

Some discussion in the market suggests US trade tariffs could also dent Chinese demand for silver in solar panels by cutting China’s exports. Moreover, this comes at a time when China is already overproducing photovoltaics, prompting industry participants to agree to self-discipline measures including production quotas.

Upcoming data

Data points to watch this week include Wednesday’s speech by ECB President Christine Lagarde and South Korean business confidence figures for January. Looking further ahead, Thursday will bring US initial jobless claims figures for the week ending January 18^th.