Despite market volatility, even gold yielded negative returns during this time. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Silver reached an all-time high on Thursday and gold rose to another record, with the Gold and Silver Price Today reflecting the dollar's fall and signs that the Federal Reserve would maintain a loose monetary policy, fueling concerns about inflation. The increase in prices hurt the results of some manufacturers, including the photography company Eastman Kodak EK, N, which said on Thursday that rising costs of raw materials, in particular silver, caused a decline in revenues from its film business. Despite the continuing decline of the film photography sector, which used to be a major buyer of silver, the industry tends to consume half of the world's metal supply. So far this year, silver has risen by almost 60 percent, currently the best-performing commodity, well above the 8 percent increase in gold.
The upturn in gold and silver was backed by subsequent purchases after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the U.S. central bank is in no hurry to reduce its support for the economy. Additional reporting by Doris Frankel in Chicago, Liana Baker and Christopher Kelly in New York, Rebekah Curtis and Amanda Cooper in London and Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore; editing by Marguerita Choy and Dale Hudson. The most obvious advantage is perhaps the fact that trading in the paper markets means that investors in silver can benefit in the long term from holding silver without the need to store it.
In short, silver bars are traded in dollars and cents per ounce, and market activity takes place around the world around the clock, resulting in a live silver price. This could be a repeat of the 1970s and 2000s, when silver vastly outperformed the U.S. stock market. For example, some ETFs focus only on physical silver bars, while others focus on silver futures contracts.
Market observers, such as Ed Steer, have said that the days of manipulating silver are numbered and that the market will experience significant change when the time finally comes. The first is through the purchase of products derived from silver ingots, such as ingots, ingot coins and silver notes. If industrial plants can't get the silver they need right away, they may be forced to pay higher prices to get the available silver to keep their operations going. The upturn in gold and silver was supported by subsequent purchases, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted on Wednesday that the United States in terms of silver options, strong purchases of call options indicated that investors were still betting that silver prices would continue to rise.
The second is achieved through paper trading, which takes place through the silver futures market, in which participants sign futures contracts for the delivery of silver at an agreed price and time. Only time will tell, but Gwen Preston of Resource Maven and Peter Krauth of Silver Stock Investor and Gold Resource Investor are confident that the silver bugs are in luck. Investing in a silver ETF is similar to trading a stock on an exchange, and there are several silver ETF options to choose from.
