By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Neither gold nor silver seem to be giving up in the race for honor among precious metals, with both hitting new milestones Wednesday on assurances of stimulus worldwide to beat the new wave of the coronavirus.
Silver futures on Comex rallied for a third straight day to a new seven-year high. Gold, on its part, revised its nine-year peaks on Comex.
The white metal has been on a winning streak over the past two-and-half months, gaining in nine of the past 10 weeks to culminate in its rise to above $23 per ounce from 11-year lows under $12 hit in March.
Silver is up 29% on the year while gold has risen 22%.
“Silver may have been the beneficiary of a double whammy,” said Jeffrey Halley, analyst in Sydney for New York-based online brokerage OANDA.
He said silver’s boon may “firstly be as the poor man’s precious metal, catching gold's tailwind from negative real yields across the US yield curve. Secondly, it has industrial applications and will thus, benefit from the buy-everything global reflation trade prevalent in markets this week.”
Comex silver settled up 1.586 cents, or 7.4%, at $23.083 per ounce after reaching $23.345 earlier. That was the highest since September 2013, when Comex silver got to $24.46 an ounce.
Comex gold settled up $21.20, or 1.1%, at $1,865.10 per ounce. That was the highest since September 2011, when Comex gold hit a record high of $1,911.60.
Gold has been propped up by promises of stimulus in the trillions dollars from global central banks. At the same time, safe-haven bids haven’t let up from those worried about further health and economic despair from a new wave of COVID-19 infections.
Add to that near-zero U.S. rates, low real yields, record inflows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, and increased asset allocation as a whole to precious metals, and the stars seem aligned for the world’s favorite shiny metal.
In gold’s case, demand for safe-havens grew after President Donald Trump admitted that the new wave of the Covid-19 outbreak will probably get worse before it gets better, said Ed Moya, Halley’s New York-based colleague at OANDA.
“Gold is going to keep on shining as U.S. Treasury yields continue to slide, virus worries remain persistent, and talks on fiscal stimulus resume in the U.S.,” added Moya, who’s senior strategist at the brokerage.