Exchange traded funds that track the price movements of silver were brought down along with gold on Wednesday as precious metals suffered while stock ETFs enjoyed a bounce.
“Equities are sharply higher today, and Obama is coming on with his jobs address,” commented Matt Zeman, a senior market strategist at Kingsview Financial, report Claudia Assis and Myra P. Saefong for MarketWatch. “We’ve seen a little bit of a return of risk appetite.”
During early trading, silver futures dropped 3.5% but pared most of their loses. Silver ETFs have stalled a bit near a recent high along with funds tracking the metal’s higher-profile cousin: gold.
Still, silver ETFs were up about 36% so far this year through Tuesday’s close. Stocks rose Wednesday — the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 260 points in afternoon trade while silver ETFs shed more than 1%.
Recession fears have partly weighed on silver lately — around half of total world demand for silver comes from the industrial sector, according to Gold Matters.
According to Anthony Mirhaydari for MSN Money, silver is exhibiting bearish technical patterns. Mirhaydari believes the speculative buying is about to make a drastic turn.
- iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV)
- ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSEArca: SIVR)
- Powershares DB Silver Fund (NYSEArca: DBS)
For more information on the silver market, visit our silver category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.
Full disclosure: Tom Lydon’s clients own SLV.