While gold has been enjoying bullishness this year amid global uncertainty related to the coronavirus and issues with China, silver has been more complacent, until now.
With the gold price breaking higher Friday after consolidating throughout the past couple of weeks, silver finally decided to make some moves of its own. Silver equities have been portending this move for the past month via the silver miners ETF, and the industrial metal decided to meet expectations today.
Silver rallied a dollar on Friday, gaining 5.74% to trade above the key $17 level for the first time since March. The move was catalyzed by safe-haven demand for precious metals this week as global stock markets and trader and investor sentiment has become more tentative this week, apart from improving consumer sentiment data released earlier.
The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) also gained momentum, supported by the move in the futures market, and climbed 4.75% Friday.
According to Kitco news, the break above the key $17 level could propel the metal even higher, as it attempts to target $20 eventually:
“July silver futures bulls have the firm overall near-term technical advantage with this week’s big gains. Silver bulls’ next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $17.50 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $15.50. First resistance is seen at $16.75 and then at $17.00. Next support is seen at $16.50 and then at $16.25,” Kitco analyst Jim Wykoff noted.
Although there has been some recent optimism that stocks may head back toward all-time highs sooner rather than later, that possibility has been tempered by poor economic data and stocks closing lower this week to notch their worst weekly performance since late March, which has driven investors into safe havens like gold and now silver.
Since mid-March, the Global Silver Miners ETF (SIL) has been targeting its highest level in three years. Both SIL and the ETFMG Prime Junior Silver Miners ETF (SILJ) have contributed to precious metals sector strength while both have also outperformed silver.
Experts note that there is a deflationary environment currently, more so than previous recessions. So with all currencies losing value and commodities in some cases dropping more than the currencies, this is a potentially historic scenario that should be supportive of both silver and gold.
“Our expectation remains that, when the dust settles, capital will seek to shelter itself from a prolonged period of negative real rates following the pandemic,” analysts at TD Securities explained.
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