Investing.com - Silver futures fluctuated between modest gains and losses on Wednesday, amid lingering uncertainty over how long the Federal Reserve will maintain the pace of its asset purchases. Moves in the silver price this year have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the U.S. central bank would end its bond-buying program sooner-than-expected. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, silver futures for September delivery traded at USD21.36 a troy ounce during European morning trade, up 0.1%. Silver futures traded in a range between USD21.26 a troy ounce, the daily low and a session high of USD21.54 a troy ounce. Silver prices were likely to find support at USD20.62 a troy ounce, the low from August 12 and resistance at USD21.74, Tuesday’s high and the highest since June 18. The September contract settled flat at USD21.34 a troy ounce on Tuesday after U.S. retail sales data reinforced the view that the economic recovery is strong enough for the Fed to begin tapering its USD85 billion-a-month asset purchase program later this year. The Commerce Department said that retail sales rose for the fourth successive month in July, rising 0.2%, while core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, rose at the fastest pace in seven months, climbing 0.5%. Investors have closely been looking out for U.S. data reports recently to gauge if they will strengthen or weaken the case for the Fed to reduce its bond purchases. Any improvement in the U.S. economy was likely to reinforce the view that the central bank will begin to taper its bond purchase program in the coming months. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said Tuesday it was still too early to detail plans for a tapering, but did not rule out the possibility of it starting next month. Silver prices are on track to post a loss of almost 33% on the year, amid concerns the U.S. central bank will start to scale back its bond purchasing program in the coming months. Elsewhere on the Comex, gold for December delivery rose 0.2% to trade at USD1,323.20 a troy ounce, while copper for September added 0.15% to trade at USD3.322 a pound. In the euro zone, preliminary data released Wednesday showed that France’s economy expanded 0.5% in the three months to June, following two consecutive quarters of contraction. Economists had forecast growth of 0.2% quarter-on-quarter. A separate report showed that Germany’s economy expanded by 0.7% after growing 0.1% in the first quarter. Economists had forecast quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.6%. Brussels was to release preliminary data on euro zone gross domestic product later in the trading day, amid expectations that the report would show a modest return to growth. Europe as a region is third in global demand for the industrial metal.

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