Silver price gains ground as markets eye US jobs report

iNVEZZ.com, Friday, January 09: The price of silver has risen so far in today’s trading following two consecutive losing sessions. The precious metal looks for its first weekly gain in four as market participants eye the release of the monthly US jobs report.

Silver for immediate delivery had advanced 0.37 percent, or six cents, to $16.39 as of 06:36 GMT, and was trading 1.6 percent above its 50-day simple moving average of $16.16. The precious metal has risen over four percent so far this week and is set for its first weekly gain since the seven days ending 12 December after safe haven demand rose following the latest spark of political uncertainty in Greece.

According to a note from ScotiaMocatta cited by Reuters: “Safe-haven demand appears to be rising again as oil prices slump and concerns grow about Greece exiting the euro”. On Monday, silver touched $16.68, its highest level since 15 December.
The price of silver for March delivery had gained five cents, or 0.3 percent, to $16.42 as of 06:37 GMT. Scotiabank wrote in a report from yesterday that near term support for the precious metal stood at $16.00: “The multi-month triangle formation currently provides a range of 15.70 and 16.90.”

Market participants will be looking forward to the release of the December US employment situation report from the Bureau of Labor statistics, due at 13:30 GMT. IG reports that the unemployment rate is expected to have dropped to 5.7 percent from November’s 5.8 percent while the number of jobs created is forecast to have declined to 240,000 from 321,000 a month earlier. In 2014 the US economy added 2.7 million workers, the most since 1999.
Based on the two most actively traded COMEX contracts, with a total volume of trade in gold and silver of 13,870 contracts as of 06:37 GMT today, the gold:silver ratio was at 73.85. The ratio was down 0.13 percent from yesterday’s 73.95 close.