Commodity Blog

Silver returned to growth today, recovering from the its lowest level since September 13 set yesterday. The main driver for the growth is considered to be the increased holdings of the precious metal by the silver electronic-traded funds as reported by Bloomberg.

According to the news and data service, the total amount of silver held by ETFs is only 0.6 percent below the peak level of April 2011. The demand seems to be busted by the global tendency to ease the monetary policy and print more money. Analysts point out that should the new rally is gold start, silver is likely to outperform its more expensive counterpart.

Despite the growing popularity of silver-based financial products and increased holding of long silver contracts by the hedge funds (see the latest Commitments of Traders report by Commodity Futures Trading Commission), the price of this commodity is lagging behind the last year’s numbers. Demand from the retail investors is also quite far below the 2011 volumes. So far, the US Mint is selling much less American Silver Bullion Eagle coins in 2012 compared the previous year.

As of 15:09 GMT, the spot silver is trading at $34.22 per troy ounce — up from the opening rate of $33.99 per troy ounce. The current weekly low was set yesterday at $33.48 per troy ounce.

If you have any questions and comments on the commodities today, use the form below to reply.