The Wall Street Journal: Silver Hits Record High on U.S. Rate-Cut Bets, Supply Tightness
Article by Giulia Petroni in The Wall Street Journal
Silver prices climbed to all-time highs on Monday, as expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further this month and persistent concerns over global supply tightness sparked a fresh rally.
In afternoon European trade, silver futures in New York were up 1.2% at $57.86 a troy ounce after hitting an intraday high of $58.61, while spot prices gained 1.7% to $57.35 an ounce after reaching $57.88. Prices have soared 99% this year, outpacing both gold and platinum.
The surge followed a pause in trading on Friday due to a 10-hour outage at CME Group’s data center in Illinois caused by a cooling-system failure.
Markets are currently pricing in a nearly 88% chance that the U.S. central bank will reduce rates by a quarter point in December amid persistent concerns over labor-market weakness and dovish signals from some Fed policymakers. Lower interest rates tend to boost the appeal of non-yielding assets that don’t pay dividends or interest.
Silver prices are also supported by concerns that the U.S. might include the metal in future tariff policies after adding it to the Geological Survey’s list of critical minerals last month, fueling significant .......