Silver Prices Plummet, Gold Wavering
With a number of investors still reeling from the beating endured last week regarding the widespread meltdown of commodities, many advisors are affording themselves something of a pat on the back in light of advising over-optimistic clients away from the gold and silver markets. Recent weeks saw the demand for precious metals soar to new heights, offering an attractive alternative to the ever-weakening U.S dollar and rocketing inflation. However, Thursday saw stocks plummet resulting from a large sell-off of commodities, particularly silver.
While the sell-off displayed signs of slowing throughout Friday’s trading, values never recovered from the losses suffered throughout the rest of the week. Silver values for July delivery fell 8% or $3.158 on Thursday to $36.23 on New York’s Comex, following a previous tumble of 9/6% to $35.60 per ounce, which marked its lowest since March 21st. Friday saw silver prices fall a further 95 cents per ounce, resting at $35.29, 27% down in total for the week. The sell-off of silver was attributed largely to increasing trading deposit requirements by CME group, owners of the Comex.
Gold values for June delivery also saw a fall on the Comex on Thursday by 2% or $29.60, coming to rest at $1,485.70 per ounce following a drop of 2.7% over the previous two days’ trading. Previously, the metal had experienced a gain of 30% over the last year, reaching record highs of $1,57.40 on May 2nd amid huge demand from both banks and private investors.
