After selling 812 tons of silver from exchange-traded products last year, investors have bought 797 tons through silver-backed ETPs this year and now hold the equivalent of eight months of mine supply and just under the record 18,639 reached in April 2011, according to data compiled and reported by Bloomberg.
But at the same time speculators have cut bets on highr prices by 72% since the end of February, mirroring cuts in copper, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Hedge funds expect slowing economic growth to curb industrial demand for silver used in televisions and batteries.
Stockpiles of silver in warehouses monitored by the CME’s Comex bourse in New York have fallen 6.5% since July 3, reaching a four-month low on Aug. 8, Bloomberg notes.
Analysts, however, are siding with investors with median estimates from 13 analysts compiled by Bloomberg forecasting an 18% increase in the price of silver in the fourth quarter to $33.02 per ounce.
Please click here for the original Bloomberg article from Futures magazine.
Phil Burgert is managing editor of ResourceInvestor.com. He can be contacted at pburgert@resourceinvestor.com.