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Silver Price News: Silver Slides On Strength in US Dollar, Treasuries
Silver prices fell back below the $23.00 an ounce mark on Tuesday, with precious metals markets in retreat after strength seen at the end of last week.
Prices fell as low as $22.88 an ounce on Tuesday, compared with highs of around $23.35 an ounce on Monday.
Both gold and silver were lower, pushed down by strength in the US dollar and rising Treasury yields. The markets have been scaling back bets on a US Fed interest rate cut in March, with any longer timeframe at current rates seen as bearish for silver.
That said, data from interest rate traders still indicate a 65% expectation that the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points at its March meeting, which could support non-interest-bearing assets like precious metals. Read More
Gold Price News: Gold Falls As US Dollar Gains
Gold prices pulled back on Tuesday, giving up some of last Friday’s sharp gains, as the US dollar strengthened.
Prices fell as low as $2,025 an ounce on Tuesday, compared with a high of $2,062 an ounce at the end of last week.
The catalyst for the latest drop was renewed strength in the US dollar, which made gains against other major currencies on Tuesday. Expectations for US interest rate cuts in March appear to have dampened, driving an increase in both the US dollar and Treasury yields.
A stronger dollar tends to make dollar-denominated assets like gold more expensive to buy in other currencies, denting demand, while a higher-for-longer scenario for interest rates is also bearish for precious metals as non-yielding assets. Read More
U.S. investors’ gold appetite could rebound, Chinese solar hurdles may hurt silver demand - Heraeus
Investors’ appetite for gold in the United States has remained weak, but it could turn around later this year, while Chinese solar demand for silver could face a double-whammy of rising prices and limited installation space, according to the latest metals report from Heraeus.
“Globally, investors in gold ETFs reduced their holdings by 8.2 moz last year, mainly from June onwards,” they said. “Positive sentiment for gold investment seemed to fade in the US following the mini banking crisis in May as attractive money market yields again became the focus. Five straight months of negative fund flows over the summer and into the autumn followed.”
The analysts noted that investor sentiment turned positive towards the end of 2023 as markets became more certain that rates had peaked and cuts were on the horizon, which drove gold above $2,000 and to new all-time highs, but this hasn’t been reflected in the flows data. Read More
Central bank gold purchases indicate revaluation plans, new monetary paradigm. Will the U.S. join it? - Middelkoop
An inexplicit but seemingly coordinated push by most of the world’s central banks to increase their gold holdings could mean revaluation is in the cards, and as the United States enters an election year, it also becomes the biggest wild card for the future of sovereign debt, national currencies, and the role of gold, according to Willem Middelkoop, Founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund.
Middelkoop wrote that the growing importance of gold in the world's monetary framework represents “an unobtrusive yet profound shift” in global finance, with the main driver being “the diminishing trust in the US dollar following the freezing of Russian foreign exchange reserves post the Ukrainian invasion, compelling central banks to increase their gold reserves.” Read More
Gold, silver sink following better-than-expected U.S. retail sales
Gold and silver prices are down in midday U.S. trading Wednesday, following a U.S. economic report that came in better than market expectations. Gold prices hit a five-week low. The upbeat U.S. retail sales report worked to temper market expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate decrease coming soon. February gold was last down $22.00 at $2,008.40. March silver was last down $0.393 at $22.705. The gold market bulls do not want to see prices drop below the key $2,000.00 level, basis February futures, as there are likely a big batch of pre-placed sell stop orders residing just below that level.
A big load of U.S. economic data released Wednesday was highlighted by the December retail sales report that came in higher than expected, at up 0.6% from November and beat market expectations of up 0.4%. That report boosted the U.S. dollar index and prompted an up-tick in U.S. Treasury yields.
Technically, February gold futures prices hit a five-week low today. The bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage, but are fading. A three-month-old uptrend on the daily bar chart is now in some jeopardy. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at last week’s high of $2,067.30. Bears' next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $2,000.00. First resistance is seen at $2,017.30 and then at $2,025.00. First support is seen at $2,000.00 and then at the December low of $1,987.90. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0.
Image Source: Kitco News
March silver futures were poised to close at a two-month-low close today. The silver bears have the overall near-term technical advantage. A six-week-old downtrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls' next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $24.00. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at the November low of $22.26. First resistance is seen at today’s high of $23.11 and then at this week’s high of $23.50. Next support is seen at last week’s low of $22.63 and then at $22.50. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 3.0. Read More
Image Source: Kitco News
The 2023 banking crisis and Middle East war drove gold, silver bullion demand in 2023
While investment demand for gold may have been disappointing through most of 2023, there was one solid pillar of strength in this sector of the gold market.
According to market analysts, financial market volatility, geopolitical turmoil and economic uncertainty helped drive physical demand for bars and coins in 2023.
Sales data from the U.S. Mint shows that it sold 1.092 million ounces of gold in various denominations of American Eagle Gold coins, up more than 11% from 2022, when it sold 980,000 ounces.
Last year marked the mint’s second-best annual sales numbers in roughly a decade, just behind 2021 when it sold 1.2 million ounces of gold. Read More
Fed rate cuts could push gold prices up 20% this year, but silver will jump 48% - AuAg Fund
Although gold has started the new year on a quiet note as prices consolidate above $2,000 an ounce, one investment firm expects a sequence of new all-time highs as both gold and silver embark on a long-term bull market.
In their recently published 2024 outlook, analysts at AuAg Funds said they expect to see a 20% rally in gold prices this year, pushing the market past $2,400 an ounce.
The Sweden-based investment firm expects a shift in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy to drive the rally in precious metals.
“We believe that central banks will shift away from rate hikes and adopt a more accommodative policy stance in 2024, which will catalyze a substantial upswing in gold prices for the foreseeable future,” the analysts said in the report. Read More
Retail sales report strengthens the Feds resolve to slower the pace of cuts
The United States Census Bureau released the advanced monthly sales report for December today, revealing that US retail sales rose 0.6% month over month in December 2023. The actual numbers came in line with economists’ forecasts that were predicting a 0.4% growth last month.
“Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December 2023, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $709.9 billion, up 0.6 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month, and up 5.6 percent (±0.7 percent) above December 2022. Total sales for the 12 months of 2023 were up 3.2 percent (±0.4 percent) from 2022. Total sales for the October 2023 through December 2023 period were up 3.9 percent (±0.4 percent) from the same period a year ago.” Read More
Live From The Vault - Episode: 155
2024 reveals a GOLD BEAR TRAP
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire shares his yearly outlook and provides a long-term analysis of what we should expect as 2024 trading begins - will we see a gold price over $2500 by the end of the year?
The precious metals expert examines the bullish drivers that could propel gold forward this year, including Russian-chaired BRICS developments, globally accelerating de-dollarisation and the impact of geopolitical escalations.
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Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
