Silver spot price down on renewed taper fears following genuinely robust US data

Following those releases, the USDX swallowed its earlier losses and turned positive, while silver dived to a two-day bottom of 19.803 so far in North American trading.

US Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims for last week came out as a three-month low of 316,000, with the biggest besting of market consensus in two months, in which analysts had been expecting an increase of 5,000 from the prior period’s 326,000.

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Today’s number is the first “clean” data in two months, following prior distortions from the notorious computer backlog problems in California. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is warning though that “claims are difficult to seasonally adjust during holidays”, so traders should apparently continue to take the data with a grain of salt.

The Chicago PMI for the current month checked in today at 63.0, well above analyst estimates for 60.6 though showing a slower pace of expansion than October’s 65.9. According to Deutsche Bank’s chief US economist Joseph LaVorgna, the improvement in the employment component of the reading is yet another sign that the “[US] labour market is healing”.

The icing on the day’s American pie came from an upward revision of the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index for November. The final estimate of 75.1 comfortably exceeded the preliminary prognosis of 72.0 and the expected 73.1.

So far today, the price of silver futures has fluctuated within the range of $19.803 to $20.138. While the bulls needed roughly 12 hours to push the precious metal from $19.87 to its intraday top at $20.138, the short-sellers erased the uptick in less than four, signifying that the bears are still very much in control of this market.

Right now, silver is trading around 19.904, down 0.07 percent intraday.