The silver market spiked up to as high as $19.75 mid week before finally succumbing to heavy selling pressure on Thursday. The selling continued into Friday morning as the white metal fell all the way back to $18 before rallying strongly off that level. As of this recording, spot prices come in at $18.69 an ounce as silver hangs on to a weekly gain of 1.4%.

Silver continued to show strong relative strength versus gold earlier this week, sending the gold to silver ratio below 80 – its lowest reading in more than a year.

Gold ran into resistance around the $1,550 level for the second straight week before pulling back. The monetary metal currently trades at $1,520 per ounce, essentially unchanged now since last Friday’s close.

Turning to platinum, the latest precious metal to break out of a long consolidation base touched the $1,000 level for the first time since early 2018. Platinum prices are now settling down at $958 but are still registering a gain of 2.5% this week.

And finally, palladium has re-gained its premium over gold on the heels of a 1.0% weekly advance. Palladium prices currently come in at $1,552 per ounce.

Looking ahead to next week, metals investors should brace for a continuation of volatile market conditions. We’re seeing some near-term overbought signals, coupled with relative weakness in gold and silver mining stocks, which sold off hard on Thursday.

For long-term gold and silver bulls, pullbacks down to more sustainable trendlines would be welcome developments.

Volatility may begin to ratchet down ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on September 17th-18th. Then, as is the usual pattern, markets will likely move in reaction to the Fed’s decision. It is widely expected to be a quarter point rate cut, and based on today’s weak jobs report, that anticipated cut appears to be solidifying.

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