Silver

On an ordinary day over the last month of trading, SILVER has moved about 2.25%, making it about as volatile as most of the metals Kinzan tracks (their median is 2.25%).

Today's move is well inside its normal range: −0.0σ, an entirely ordinary session.

It sits in the lower half of its 24-hour range of 61.075–61.89, measured on hourly closes.

Most of the move came in the New York session (13:00–22:00 UTC), which accounted for about 47% of the day's price action.

Over the last 60 sessions of daily returns, it has moved most closely with GOLD (+0.86, a very strong relationship), and most inversely to USD/THB (−0.66).

Market read: Silver is grinding higher, supported by steady buying interest during the New York session.

What it is

Silver lives a double life. It is a monetary metal with a history as coinage stretching back millennia, yet more than half of annual demand now comes from industry: electronics, electrical contacts, brazing alloys and, increasingly, the paste used in solar panels. This page follows the front COMEX silver future, quoted in US dollars per troy ounce, with a standard contract of 5,000 ounces. Much of the world’s supply is mined as a by-product of lead, zinc, copper and gold production, so output responds only slowly to price.

What drives it

On the investment side, silver responds to the same forces as gold — the dollar, real interest rates and demand for a store of value — but its smaller market means those flows have a larger price impact. On the industrial side, it reacts to the manufacturing cycle, to Chinese factory activity and to the pace of solar installation around the world. Which influence dominates shifts over time, and when both pull in the same direction moves can be dramatic. Silver’s history includes some of the best-known squeezes in commodity markets, most famously the Hunt brothers’ attempt to corner it in 1979–80.

How it trades through the day

Like gold, COMEX silver trades nearly 24 hours on weekdays. The Asia block (22:00–07:00 UTC) tends to be thin, with Shanghai futures trading providing some direction. London (07:00–13:00 UTC) is the centre of the physical market and hosts the daily silver price benchmark set at midday London time. The New York block (13:00–22:00 UTC) usually brings the heaviest futures volume and the reaction to US data, and ranges can widen quickly if gold is moving.

What it tends to move with

Silver has historically moved in the same direction as gold but with larger percentage swings, so the gold-to-silver ratio is closely watched. It tends to share gold’s inverse relationship with the US Dollar Index, and its industrial side gives it some co-movement with copper and platinum. In sharp sell-offs driven by growth fears it has often fallen harder than gold.