Silver jumped for a second day on Friday as the market remains on high alert after a call by Reddit Inc posters to create a short squeeze sparked sharp moves on Thursday.
Silver for March delivery rose US$0.99 to US$26.91
On Thursday, silver miners’ shares spiked and the largest silver exchange-traded fund, iShares Silver Trust, saw a frenzy of options buying after the market emerged as a target on the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets.
Photo: Bloomberg
The moves “have been extreme in some cases and have had little fundamental justification,” Eugen Weinberg, an analyst at Commerzbank AG, said in a note.
“Retail investors who have been swapping tips on such information platforms have caused massive shifts in the prices of some shares,” Weinberg said. “We are confident that the influence of retail investors on silver will not last all that long, and that ultimately industrial and institutional demand will be the key factor in the longer term.”
Still, “in the very short term, I would think people would be cautious about holding a short in precious metals, irrespective of the fundamental view/what other markets are doing,” said Marcus Garvey, head of metals and bulks commodity strategy at Macquarie Group Ltd.
Comments about the metal on Wednesday began appearing on the investor board that is now famous for driving up GameStop Corp shares this week. They centered on conspiracy theories long held by the fringes of the precious metals world, alleging the metal’s price is suppressed by banks and the government to mask inflation.
If there’s another short squeeze, “I think it will be fairly muted,” said Jason Teed, director of research at Flexible Plan Investments Ltd. “A short squeeze on a mid-cap stock with heavy short interest is one thing, but the commodity markets are extremely vast.”
Other commodities:
‧ Gold for February delivery rose US$9.40 to US$1847.30 an ounce, while copper delivery for March fell US$0.02 to US$3.56 a pound.
Additional reporting by AP
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS