Silver ETFs Hit Record, Weekly Price Rise Is Huge in Japan..Literally

TOKYO (Aug 27)  In addition to US Mint silver coin sales breaking a record, “total silver ETF holdings reached a record of 644 million ounces as of August 21,” according to a recent ETF Securities report – translated, that represents a whopping 83% or so of 2012 total mine supply.

How that affects the market in the coming months remains to be seen.

The biggest mover on MetalMiner’s weekly Global Precious Metals MMI®, Japanese silver jumped 7.7 percent.

Closing out the third week of rising prices, the price of Indian silver increased by 6.4 percent. With a 4.0 percent climb, Chinese silver claimed the week’s largest gain. Over the past week, US silver rose 3.5 percent.

Japanese gold bullion climbed 3.7 percent increase. Indian gold bullion rose 1.8 percent over the past week. US gold bullion prices ticked up 1.5 percent. Chinese gold bullion rose by a slight 0.7 percent.

Japanese platinum bar saw its price rise 2.6 percent over the past week. The price of Chinese platinum bar rose 1.3 percent this week. The price of US platinum bar increased by a slight 0.9 percent over the past week.

The price of US palladium bar fell 1.6 percent after rising 3.0 percent the week before. Following a 1.5 percent increase, Japanese palladium bar finished the week up. Following a 1.8 percent increase in the week prior, the price of Chinese palladium bar fell 0.6 percent last week.