Silver Soars over $30 per ounce

Silver soars over $30 an ounce — to the highest level in eight years — early Monday on “Reddit Rally” as investors surged into the market.

Since Thursday, when Reddit posts began urging small investors to buy silver mining stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETF) backed by physical silver bars, in a  Gamestop-style squeeze, Silver has gained 19%.

Chatter on the Reddit message board WallStreetBets, initially put silver ETFs in the crosshairs. Posters called for a short squeeze on the silver market, which would send prices sharply higher and force investors who had bet on a price drop to take a loss. The front-month futures contract on Comex surged 6% over two days on Thursday and Friday, and ETFs climbed.

Then, after financial markets closed for the weekend, things rippled into the physical market. Sellers of silver bars and coins were overwhelmed with unprecedented demand for these products on their websites. Bloomberg reported Sunday that a number of silver retail outlets said they weren’t able to process orders before the global commodity exchanges opened Monday because of the huge demand.

When Comex finally opened for the week on Sunday evening, front-month futures surged as high as $29.25 an ounce in intraday trading, up 8.7% from Friday’s settlement of $26.91. Front-month silver futures rose 5.3% last week. The March contract gained 3.8% Friday and increased 1.9% in January. Silver surged 47% in 2020. Currently, the March contract is up over $3 to $29.965 and the DG spot price is $29.80.

April gold futures fell 0.5% last week to $1,850.30 an ounce on Comex. Front-month futures gained 0.5% Friday and dropped 2.4% in January. Gold climbed $372 — or 24% — in 2020 because of uncertainty about the economy and the coronavirus pandemic.

Investors were awaited the release of the key first-of the-month manufacturing data from the U.S. on Monday for a glimpse of the state of the economy in January. China’s manufacturing activity weakened for a second consecutive month in January as outbreaks of COVID-19 cases domestically affected some industry operations.

The COVID-19 virus has killed almost 2.23 million people worldwide and sickened almost 103 million. About 25% of the cases — and 20% of the deaths — are in the U.S. The country has almost 26.2 million cases, more than any other nation.

In upcoming U.S. economic news, investors will be anticipating the key monthly unemployment report due out Friday from the Labor Department. Also closely watched this week will be the ADP employment report for January on Wednesday and weekly initial jobless claims and fourth-quarter productivity figures on Thursday.

Spot palladium lost 6.4% last week to $2,230.00 an ounce. It retreated 4.8% Friday. It plummeted 9% in January after rallying 26% in 2020. Currently, the DG spot price is up ocer $20 an ounce to $2,259.50.

Spot platinum decreased 2.5% last week to $1,078.90 an ounce, though it gained 0.2% Friday. It rose 0.5% in January and 11% in 2020. The DG spot price is currently up almost $50 an ounce to $1,127.40.