Gold News

Silver "Looking Cheap" Despite "Dramatic" Gain; "Explosive" Gold/Silver Ratio Points Way for World Stocks

Gold and Silver Prices touched new 8-week highs in London dealing on Thursday, while the Japanese Yen retreated further and developed-world stock markets extending yesterday's rally on Wall Street.

G7 bonds slipped back, nudging yields higher from this week's record lows.

Crude oil pushed higher again, unwinding a third of this month's 7% drop at $73 per barrel.

"Base metals have [also] staged a rebound," notes Standard Bank's commodities team today, but "precious metals continue to push higher, adding weight to our assertion that equity markets and base metals are largely being driven by bargain-hunting rather than resurgent risk appetite."

"Gold is now open to the next leg higher from $1256 to $1265," says Russell Browne at bullion bank Scotia Mocatta in his latest technical analysis.

"Silver [also] made a dramatic move to $19.05...and the Gold/Silver Ratio dipped to 65.44, its third consecutive day moving lower."

A falling Gold/Silver Ratio – which has averaged 61 over the last 10 years – means it takes fewer ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold.

The ratio "has focused itself ever more tightly into a potentially explosive arrowhead, right on a long-term mean," writes Sean Corrigan at Diapason Commodities in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"The intriguing thing is that gold outperforms [silver] when the stock market is weakening, so adding urgency to the question which way the ratio might go next."

Interviewed by Bloomberg today, "Silver is looking cheap and we're seeing strong investment demand for small ingots, as well as good industrial demand from solar-panel makers," reported Dick Poon, head of precious metals trading at the Heraeus refinery group's Hong Kong office.

Over on the currency markets on Thursday, the British Pound gave back half-a-cent of yesterday's jump towards $1.56, holding the Gold Price in Sterling above £800 an ounce – a six-week high broken for the first time on the way up in May.

Eurozone investors wanting to Buy Gold today meantime saw the price rise above €31,300 per kilo, gaining 3.2% from Tuesday's dip.

Money-supply growth ticked higher across the 16-nation Eurozone in July, the European Central Bank said, but lagged analyst forecasts at 0.2% month-on-month.

Ahead of monthly US employment data next week – a key mover recently for the Dollar and Gold Prices – new figures today showed both new and continuing jobless benefit claims slipping last week.

"Whilst we are getting any negative data, you can expect gold to benefit," said Investec Australia's Darren Heathcote to Reuters this morning in Sydney.

"I still don't see it really moving substantially lower in the short term."

Looking further ahead, and even on a 20% slump, "We do not believe the price can fall below $800 an ounce for long," says Edward George, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, speaking to The Guardian, "as over half of current Gold Mining operations are only profitable at a price of at least $1,000.

"If the price falls below this level for a long time they will simply stop producing, reducing supply and ultimately driving up the price again."

Buying Silver today? Start with this free ounce today at Bullion Vault...

Adrian Ash

Adrian Ash, BullionVault Gold News

Adrian Ash is director of research at BullionVault, the world-leading physical gold, silver and platinum market for private investors online. Formerly head of editorial at London's top publisher of private-investment advice, he was City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning from 2003 to 2008, and he has now been researching and writing daily analysis of precious metals and the wider financial markets for over 20 years. A frequent guest on BBC radio and television, Adrian is regularly quoted by the Financial Times, MarketWatch and many other respected news outlets, and his views from inside the bullion market have been sought by the Economist magazine, CNBC, Bloomberg, Germany's Handelsblatt and FAZ, plus Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore.

See the full archive of Adrian Ash articles on GoldNews.

Please Note: All articles published here are to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it. Please review our Terms & Conditions for accessing Gold News.

Follow Us

Facebook Youtube Twitter LinkedIn

 

 

Market Fundamentals