Yesterday amid continued carnage in equities, precious metals finally caught a bid after a prolonged sell-off that has oddly coincided with the weakness in equities throughout May.
The iShares Silver (NYSEArca: SLV) rallied more than 3%, and the ETF has actually seen net inflows in recent sessions despite the largely negative net price action.
Before yesterday’s bounce, SLV had traded the day prior with a $25 handle, and briefly touched its lowest levels since late December of last year. Still, the ETF remains substantially lower than both its 50 and 200 day moving averages (closing price was $27.24, 50 day MA is $30.41, 200 day MA is $32.53).
SPDR Gold (NYSEArca: GLD) and iShares Gold (NYSEArca: IAU), two prominent ETFs that track the price of Gold bullion, also rallied yesterday notably, popping more than 2% after literally a few weeks of very weak performance.
Year to date, Silver has eked out a small gain, with SLV up 1.11% and Gold is up 0.53%. In the trailing one year period, Silver has notably lagged spot gold prices, down 17.67% versus Gold up 5.57%. [Gold ETFs Rally to Weekly Gain]
Those who believe that Silver is attractively valued at current levels and looking to leverage a short term trade to the upside may consider ProShares Ultra Silver (NYSEArca: AGQ) or VelocityShares 3X Long Silver ETN (NYSEArca: USLV) which deliver the daily leveraged performance to silver spot prices, 2 times and 3 times long respectively.