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These Factors Have Been Driving Silver Prices

  • Author:Meera Shawn

Silver’s performance

Compared to gold, silver is the more volatile precious metal. The overall sentiment in the market for silver is positive, as it recently crossed the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages.

Silver has performed slightly better than gold and platinum on a year-to-date basis. Silver had a year-to-date gain of 8.8%, while gold and platinum have risen 7% and 7.4%, respectively, as of March 20. Palladium, however, has outperformed the other three metals with a rise of 14.7% during the same timeframe.

Precious and industrial metals

The fluctuations in the price of silver since 2015 are shown in the above chart. As silver is considered both an industrial as well as a precious metal, the rises and falls in its price are dependent on many global indicators.

When Brexit concerns surfaced in mid-2016, the haven bids caused silver to rise. Similarly, after Trump won the US election, the haven bids impacted the metal. The increase in the interest rate on Treasuries caused non-yield-bearing assets like gold and silver to suffer. In a similar fashion, the overall industrial market performance can also impact silver, as silver is frequently used as an industrial metal.

Silver funds and miners

The fluctuations in silver prices are evident in the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and the Silver Trust ETF (SIVR). These two funds have risen 9.2% each due to the rise in silver prices.

Silver mining stocks like Hecla Mining (HL), Coeur Mining (CDE), Pan American Silver (PAAS), and Silver Wheaton (SLW) have fallen over the past month due to the fall in silver prices.

Later in this series, we’ll look at the performance of silver miners along with technical details.

Article from – http://marketrealist.com

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SLV: The Inflection Point In Silver Has Arrived

Summary

  • Author:David Alton Clark
  • Silver has been in a long-term downtrend since hitting a high in 2012.
  • Nonetheless, several bullish catalysts have come to fruition as of late.
  • My vehicle of choice to play silver is the iShares SLV ETF.
  • In the following article I make the case to buy the SLV now.

I believe the bottom for silver is in. My vehicle of choice to play silver is the iShares Silver Trust Fund (NYSE: SLV). SLV has been in a long-term downtrend since touching an all-time high of $48 in 2011. Even so, I posit now could be the ideal time to buy SLV shares. The weakening dollar and inflation finally raising its ugly head are the primary culprits. These developments combined with several positive catalysts on the horizon lead me to believe the SLV has nowhere to go but up.

The Fed’s dovish tone

A strong U.S. dollar began to sell off courtesy of Federal Reserve’s dovish tone at its most recent meeting.

Furthermore, the Fed chair’s decision to not increase the trajectory of rising rates incited a strong bid for commodities and foreign currencies after leaving the forecasts for rate hikes in 2017 at two. I believe the Fed is playing it safe by maintaining such a dovish stance. This happens every time. The Fed always seems to tighten or loosen interest rates for long after they should have stopped.

This leaves the door open for inflation to spike even higher in the coming years. Basically, the Fed would rather fight off rising inflation in the future than be blamed for crashing the markets now. Fortunately, the SLV provides an ideal hedge. The S&P 500 and the SLV have shown a near perfect inverse correlation for the past few years.