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General Market Commentary
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General Precious Metals
Silver prices finish higher as gold posts back-to-back declines
Silver futures finished higher on Monday, taking advantage of a rise in appetite for riskier assets while gold posted back-to-back declines as traders kept watch on Britain’s circuitous effort to leave the European Union and awaited developments in the U.S.-China trade fight.
“Silver is finally being helped by its industrial needs and participation in our economy,” George Gero, managing director at RBC Wealth Management, told MarketWatch. Until recently, silver had “lagged as haven seekers kept up with gold investments.”
December silver rose 2.4 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $17.602 an ounce after trading as high as $17.895 during the session. Gold for December delivery on Comex, meanwhile, ended $6, or 0.4%, lower at $1,488.10 an ounce.
Month to date, prices for most-active silver futures trade around 3.4% higher, while gold futures have climbed by 1%, according to FactSet data.
“Gold has been held back by the recent rally in the equity markets and selloff in bonds, reducing the appeal of the safe-haven metal — even if its longer-term bullish price structure points to potentially higher prices, eventually,” said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Forex.com, in a note.
“Silver, on the other, has benefited more from the positive sentiment towards risk,” he said, noting that it tends to be less prone than gold to selloffs when stocks rise.
That is due to silver’s role as an industrial metal as well as a precious metal, he said, noting that the white metal is still viewed as a haven. That means it could rally alongside gold if equities see a sustained selloff.
Looking ahead, the gold market is awaiting some key economic news later in week, such as U.S. durable goods number and the consumer sentiment reading, which “could tip hand towards” what Federal Open Market Committee does at its two-day meeting that concludes on Oct. 30, said Jeff Wright, executive vice president of GoldMining Inc.
Wright said he still expects to see a 25 basis point interest-rate cut next week, but that “could also change or get postponed a meeting, dependent upon data.”
Meanwhile, U.S. benchmark stock indexes traded broadly higher on Wall Street Monday as futures prices for precious metals settled. Over the weekend, China’s top trade negotiators, Vice Premier Liu He, described U.S.-China talks as having made “substantial progress.”