Gold (CG=F) recent escape hitting record highs makes investors bullish on silver (IF = F) Also.
The commodity, often called gold’s “little brother,” is hovering above $28 an ounce, up about 23% over the past two months, compared with a 19% rise for the metal precious yellow during the same period.
“The typical pattern for silver is: gold is the leader. (It) breaks out first, and then after a few months, money takes over and rushes by. We’re starting to see it,” Sprott Asset Management CEO John Ciampaglia told Yahoo Finance this week.
Bulls don’t just follow price trends. They are also interested in demand, particularly the growing industrial use of silver as part of the green energy transition.
“We’re seeing very large purchases of silver from India, as well as continued consumption of silver for the use of solar panels, which are currently being built at record levels around the world,” Ciampaglia said.
The use of silver in industrial applications reached a new peak in 2023 for the third year in a row, according to data released Wednesday by the Silver Institute, a nonprofit industry organization.
“Continued structural gains from green economy applications have supported this progress. » says the reportciting higher than expected capacity and adoption for solar panels.
The Silver Institute expects the metal’s supply to fall 1% this year, which would result in the market’s second-largest deficit in more than 20 years. The industry group also expects demand to extend beyond the energy transition in the coming years.
“For example, silver will become an indispensable material as artificial intelligence (AI) develops. End uses expected to integrate silver into AI include transportation, nanotechnology, biotechnology, healthcare, consumer wearables, computing, and data center energy,” says the report.
Silver last closed at a record high just above $48 an ounce in April 2011.
Ines Ferre is a senior economics reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on @ines_ferre.
