Silver price falls following best day in a month

The price of silver has fallen so far in today’s trading, following a short-covering rally in the previous session fuelled by a disappointing US payroll report.

Silver for immediate delivery had slid 0.31 percent, or nearly five cents, to $15.71 as of 08:15 GMT, and was trading over 10 percent below its 50-day simple moving average of $17.49.

It rose 2.4 percent during the previous session, the steepest gain since 6 October, after it reached a fresh four-year low of $15.04 in earlier trading. Spot silver recorded its fourth straight intraweek decline, a period in which it has tumbled 9.2 percent.

The precious metal rebounded during the previous session after soft US nonfarm employment data put the greenback under pressure and boosted the precious metal's appeal as a hedge against risk.

According to Friday’s release by the Department of Labor, US employers added 214,000, workers in October.

The figure came in below the 235,000 median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and lower than the 248,000 net jobs created in the previous month which was revised even higher to 256,000 in the latest report. Although the unemployment rate improved to 5.8 percent, the increase in average hourly earnings at 0.1 percent was also below forecasts.

The price of silver for December delivery was down 0.5 percent, or eight cents, to $15.72 as of 08:38 GMT on the COMEX in New York. The contract reached $15.04 during the previous session, the lowest since February 2010.

Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), released on Friday, showed that hedge funds and money managers trimmed their net silver short bets by 4,159 contracts in the seven days ended 4 November. Net shorts totaled 6,163 contracts on Tuesday, compared to net shorts of 10,322 contracts in the preceding week.

According to a report by Scotiabank: