Silver Prices Give Back Gains as Dollar Basket Stabilizes

London (Aug 2)  Silver prices swung lower on Wednesday, as the dollar stabilized following a protracted slump and investors looked ahead to economic data.

September silver futures dropped 10 cents, or 0.6%, to $16.66 a troy ounce at 7:01 a.m. ET. The contract reached a session low of $16.56.

 The grey metal is trading at more than one-month highs on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The four-week uptrend followed heavy losses through early July, when prices fell to more than 15-month lows.

Gold prices were also down sharply through the early morning session. The December futures contract declined $6.10, or 0.5%, to $1,273.40 a troy ounce.

The U.S. dollar stabilized on Wednesday after plunging to new lows at the start of the week. The dollar index (DXY) was last seen trading at 92.97, where it was down 0.1% from the previous close. It was up by as much as 0.2% earlier in the session.

Investors are firmly looking to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for big movements in the markets. Bloomberg’s latest survey suggests that the U.S. economy added 178,000 nonfarm jobs last month, following a June increase of 222,000. The unemployment rate is projected to fall to 4.3% from 4.4%.

Monetary policy is on the radar Thursday as the Bank of England releases its August interest rate decision. Three Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members voted to raise interest rates at the June meeting. They were defeated by five members who voted to maintain the status quo.

In other news, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has followed the lead of the London Mercantile Exchange by offering silver futures contracts on its U.S. platform beginning September 5.

Source: EconomicCalendar