Silver: The #1 Precious Metal to Own Right Now

Silver has cracked a key resistance level of $35 this week blasting above $36 late in the week. The last time we saw $36 silver was in 2011, when it was on its way to a record high near $50 an ounce.

Over the last year, $35 has stood as a significant resistance level for silver.

Having finally blown well past that barrier, there doesn’t appear to be much resistance on the way to new record highs, although we’ll have to see what transpires here over the coming weeks and months.

We’ve also finally seen a narrowing of the gold-silver ratio to 92:1. It has been hovering around 100:1 for the last several months and rose to over 105:1 in April. This could signal the beginning of a rally that will bring silver closer to its historical relationship with gold. In modern times, the gold-silver ratio has averaged around 60:1.

The technicals signal that silver is set up for a bull run.

If we look at a 50-year price chart for silver, we see a very distinctive pattern known as a “secular cup and handle.” We've talked about this massive, long-term bullish pattern several times over the years.

You can see the “cup” with the twin highs of around $50 per ounce in 1980 and 2011. Following the 2011 peak, we see a sharp decline in the price, followed by a consolidation “handle.”

A cup-and-handle pattern on the chart of a stock or commodity often precedes a major breakout.

In the case of silver, this cup-and-handle pattern has played out over an extremely long timeframe. Historically, longer patterns portend bigger breakouts with a broader base signaling a bigger upside case.

Gold had followed a similar long-term pattern, resolving with a breakout to new all-time highs back in 2023.

The supply and demand dynamics are also positive for silver.

Money Metals recently reported that industrial demand for silver set a fourth consecutive record in 2024, driving a market deficit for the fourth consecutive year. Demand outstripped new supply by nearly 149 million ounces. That drove the four-year market shortfall to 678 million ounces, the equivalent of 10 months of mining supply in 2024.

You can bet we'll be watching -- and reporting on -- this situation in silver as it continues to unfold.

Meanwhile, four members of Congress have today introduced a bill to require the first comprehensive audit of America’s gold reserve in decades.

The bill -- backed by Money Metals and sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie, Troy Nehls, Addison McDowell, and Warren Davidson -- the Gold Reserve Transparency Act would require a full assay, inventory, and audit of all United States gold holdings.

Importantly, H.R. 3795 will also require full disclosure of all transactions involving America’s gold, including any purchases, sales, loans, pledges, leases, swaps, and other encumbrances, dating back 50 years. Such activities have not been publicly disclosed.

It’s been literally decades since actual inventories and assays have been conducted with respect to the U.S. gold reserve, and the Department of the Treasury has lost records as well as failed to account for many occasions when vault compartments were inexplicably opened and resealed without new audits.

The lack of proper audits of America’s gold is highly alarming and totally unacceptable – such shoddy procedures would never pass muster in the private sector. Even if a credible audit had been conducted several decades ago, auditing is never a ‘one and done’ affair.

The gold audit bill comes in an environment where some nations are growing concerned about their gold stored in the United States, or who prefer to hold their gold domestically. For example, leaders in Germany are calling for the repatriation of their gold held in the custody of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

An inquiry into America’s sound money stockpile is more relevant than ever, given an inflationary environment where $37 trillion in U.S. federal debt looms large and given that many central banks have been accumulating gold at record rates over the last few years.

Now is the time for some actual transparency surrounding America’s gold. Because gold is the ultimate form of money recognized the world over, safeguarding the U.S. Treasury Department’s holdings of the yellow metal is very much a national security issue.

Only a thorough audit, not a public-relations stunt such as the ‘live walkthrough’ as Elon Musk and others proposed, will suffice. This situation requires far more than a fun one-day field trip by politicians to Fort Knox, West Point, and other U.S. Treasury vaults.

Well, before we get to this week’s interview let’s take a look at the market action.

Gold is up 0.9% for the week now and checks in at $3,331 with just a couple hours left in trading for the week. Silver, however, is having a much more explosive week, as we already mentioned. The white metal is up nearly $3 and comes in at $36.18, a whopping 9% advance for the week and reaching a fresh 13-year high.

Platinum is also experiencing a similar advance. The industrial metal is up $108 or 10.1% to come in at $1,176 an ounce. Platinum’s cousin palladium is also having a solid week with a nice move up to $1,073 an ounce, good for a 7.1% gain since last Friday’s close.

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