Silver Prices Heading for First Weekly Loss of 2017

New York (Mar 3)  May silver futures were trading at $17.22 a troy ounce at 7:37 a.m. ET, little changed from the prior session’s close, where prices plunged 4%. The sharp reversal on Thursday puts silver on track for its first weekly decline of the year.

Gold futures were down for a third straight session to trade near two-week lows on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April futures contract fell $5.60, or 0.5%, to $1,227.30 a troy ounce Friday morning.

The sharp pullback in precious metals on Thursday sent the gold/silver ratio to its highest level in over three weeks. As of Thursday, one ounce of gold was worth around 69.5 ounces of silver.

A surging U.S. dollar fueled by growing rate-hike bets was largely responsible for the market’s sharp correction. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the buck against a basket of six other major currencies, traded near two-month highs on Thursday. The dollar index gave back most of its gains Friday, and was last down 0.3% at 101.94.

 

Fed Fund futures prices imply a 75% probability that U.S. interest rates will rise later this month when the Federal Reserve holds its second policy meeting of the year. The FOMC decision will be handed down alongside a revised summary of economic projections covering GDP, inflation and the unemployment rate.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will deliver a speech on the U.S. economy in Chicago later today. Vice Chair Stanley Fischer will also comment on U.S. monetary policy at an even in New York around the same time.

Source: EconomicCalendar