MW: Silver leads metals’ rebound as gold tops $1,500
Silver tacks on nearly 5%, while gold returns to $1,500 an ounce
By Myra P. Saefong and V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Silver futures led a recovery in the precious metals sector Monday morning and gold topped $1,500 an ounce as investors tested the waters for price stability in a still-cautious market after commodities’ plunge last week.
Silver futures for July delivery SIN11 +4.77% rose $1.62, or 4.6%, to $36.91 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping a high of $37.98 overnight. The contract skidded $2.63, or 1%, on Friday to complete its worst week in more than three decades. The metal was still down more than 20% so far in May. Read about Friday’s action in metals.
June gold futures GCM11 +0.86% , meanwhile, rose $13.40, or 0.9%, to $1,505 an ounce, extending its $10.20, or 0.7%, increase on Friday. Prices are still more than 3% lower month to date.
For the precious metals, “volatility is likely to remain high in the coming sessions, with traders and investors cautious of another bout of long selling, particularly in silver,” analysts at TheBullionDesk.com said in an early morning note to clients.
“While the corrections are likely to entice fresh demand from physical and investment sources buyers, may hold-off until some price stability emerges with the metals still vulnerable to downside pressure,” they said.
The precious-metals complex may be seeing some support from political unrest over the weekend in Syria, Egypt and Bahrain, according to Ben Potter, markets strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne.
Several protestors were reportedly killed in Syria over the weekend in clashes with government forces, while the Los Angeles Times reported 12 deaths in Egypt in the wake of violent riots between Muslims and Christians.
In other metals trading Monday, July platinum futures PLN11 +0.26% climbed $4.60 to $1,791 an ounce and June palladium PAM11 +1.38% added $8.70 to $725 an ounce. July copper HGN11 +0.79% rose 4.10 cents to $4.02 a pound.
