High drama in the institutional markets for gold and silver -- unfolding mostly in the background over the past 45 days – may finally be bleeding out into the mainstream.
In the latest Money Metals Midweek Memo, Mike Maharrey explores the silver market, covering rising industrial demand, supply shortages, and bullish projections from analysts.
Since silver tends to be the more volatile of the two metals (amplifying gold’s gains on the upside as well as gold’s declines on the downside), relative strength in silver tends to be a bullish indicator for the entire precious metals complex.
Gold set multiple records last year while silver remained well below its all-time highs. This created the impression that silver underperformed even though it was up over 20 percent. But we're starting to see some bullish sentiment for silver, even in the mainstream.
An Arizona Senate bill aims to create a state-backed transactional currency supported entirely by gold and silver, along with a state-operated bullion depository.
On the week, gold was up 1.1%, silver was weak but rebounded and closed up 0.1%...Silver needs to get over $32 and especially over $34 to think of new highs above $35.
Silver is on sale. The last time we saw a gold-silver ratio over 90-1 was early days of the pandemic lockdowns. In the modern era, the gold-silver ratio averages between 40-1 and 60-1.
For instance, in the days leading up to the inauguration, the premium for front-month silver futures surged from 56 cents per ounce to $1.12, far above the typical 14-cent range.
