Silver Prices Soar for Week, Silver Eagles Top 23M

Silver prices rallied this week in New York and London, with respective weekly gains of 5.8% and 4.9%.

U.S. silver tracked gold and joined with increases in other precious metals, breaking a two-week losing streak. With the exception of a 4.4 cent dip on Thursday, silver moved higher each day since last week’s close.

On Friday, September silver finished at $19.039 an ounce on the Comex in New York — its best closing price this week. It reached an intraday high earlier in the day of $19.340 an ounce.

"It’s trite to say it, but silver really is performing as the poor man’s gold right now," Charles Nedoss, a senior market strategist with Olympus Futures in Chicago, said and was quoted on MarketWatch.com.

Silver surged $1.048 for the week. The metal’s lowest closing price was on Monday at $17.992 an ounce. U.S. silver is also up 5.8% in August after falling 3.8% in July.

This week’s other bullion quote comes from Edel Tully, UBS precious metals strategist.

"Much of silver’s recent rally is due to expanding investor interest, as registered by rising CME volumes and options-related buying – but there’s also been a notable increase in ETF buying," Tully said in a daily report on Thursday. "We are positive toward silver this year, and see potential for it to gain as the ‘poor man’s gold’, a cheap alternative to the primary safe-haven asset," she added.

The gold-to-silver ratio is 1 to 65.02, which is a marked change from the level of last Friday when one ounce of gold could buy 68.30 ounces of silver.

The London silver Fix price was $19.030 an ounce on Friday — the second highest level of the week after a price of $19.110 was hit on Thursday. The week’s $17.880 an ounce low point was registered on Tuesday.

American Silver Eagles enjoyed their best week of sales this month, but United States Mint authorized buyers will need to order more than one million more to catch up to the nearly 3 million sold last Month. August Silver Eagle sales are now at 1,906,000, lifted by this week’s gain of 800,000. The bullion coins have passed a new milestone of over 23 million for the year — 23,055,500, to be exact.

Bullion weekly price charts follow from New York and London follow:

New York Futures Precious Metal Prices
	December Gold	September Silver	October Platinum	September Palladium
8/20/2010	1228.80	17.991	1513.90	476.20
8/27/2010	1237.90	19.039	1537.00	503.05

 

New York Futures Weekly Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver	X		5.8%	$1.05
Gold	X		0.7%	$9.10
Platinum	X		1.5%	$23.10
Palladium	X		5.6%	$26.85

 

London Fix Precious Metal Prices
	Gold		Silver	Platinum		Palladium
	AM	PM		AM	PM	AM	PM
8/20/2010	1230.50	1223.50	18.140	1517.00	1512.00	483.00	478.00
8/27/2010	1234.50	1235.00	19.030	1530.00	1530.00	500.00	503.00

 

London Weekly Bullion Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver	X		4.9%	$0.89
Gold	X		0.9%	$11.50
Platinum	X		1.2%	$18.00
Palladium	X		5.2%	$25.00