« Gemprint Goes Major League! Bought By Collectors Universe. | Main | Zales To Get New CEO. »
Silver Hits 19 Year High!
New York precious metals advanced on speculator and fund buying Monday, with silver hitting a 19-year high on excitement over a proposed U.S. silver-backed investment and gold also extending its rally.
Dealers said positive technical factors and an absence of speculative liquidation in the complex, despite a firmer U.S. dollar during the session, supported prices.
Platinum also was well-bid, hitting another 26-year high, up $7.00 mid-day to $1074/OZ.
"Precious metals are up across the board on commodity-index buying," said a dealer at precious metals desk in New York.
"Silver's up, and it is all on rumors about the ETF, and as technical breakouts are continuing," he said. "The market looks great and it should hit $10 soon."
COMEX March silver climbed 18.5 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $9.79 an ounce by 10:17 a.m. EST, in a session range from $9.575 to $9.81, which put prices at their loftiest level since at least April 1987.
The market has been abuzz over Barclays Global Investors' plan to launch iShares Silver Trust, which on Wednesday appeared to move closer to approval after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a filing about its potential listing on the American Stock Exchange.
Each share would be worth 10 ounces of silver. The security would require the purchase of silver bullion to guarantee it.
UBS analyst John Reade also viewed silver as ripe for a trade above $10 an ounce in the near term, after it moved to the fore of the metals during the past week.
Reade said the odds of the SEC approving the ETF looked to have increased to 75 to 80 percent, from about 50 percent, and the silver markets -- spot, forwards and options -- were adjusting to that.
"But the timing on any further announcement is impossible to forecast, and there is a risk that the move higher (and tighter) in silver may run out of steam, if there is no fresh news on the ETF," Reade said in a daily note.
Timing in life is everything, ain't that right , Hunt Brothers?
