Silver surges to near 6-month peak on retail frenzy
Silver soared as much as 7.4% to climb a nearly six-month peak on Monday, after social media posts last week called for retail investors to flood into the market and push up prices of the precious metal.
Spot silver hit its highest since Aug. 11 at $28.98 an ounce, and was up 5.4% to 28.45 by 0049 GMT.
Silver has risen nearly 15% since Thursday, when posts began circulating on Reddit urging retail investors to buy silver mining stocks and iShares Silver Trust, an exchange traded fund (ETF) backed by physical silver bars, in a GameStop-style squeeze.
Buying an ETF can boost silver prices by increasing the number of shares in the fund and making its operator buy more metal to back them.
The gold/silver ratio, which measures the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold, fell to its lowest since 2014.
Speculators upped their bullish positions in COMEX gold and silver contracts in the week to Jan. 26, data showed on Friday.
Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,852.35 per ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 0.3% to $1,856.30.
Meanwhile, 10 moderate Republican U.S. senators urged President Joe Biden on Sunday to significantly downsize his sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
Elsewhere, platinum eased 0.1% at $1,072 and palladium shed 0.2% to $2,222.46.
Reference: CNBC
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