WSJ: Price Of Silver Soaring

An unexpected surge in investor demand is sending silver prices soaring—and speculators and mining companies are digging in.

In the past four months, the metal has upended forecasts, rising 51% to a series of 30-year highs, before inflation.  Silver closed Thursday at $29.31 a troy ounce, up from $16.822 at the beginning of 2010.

Among the four major precious metals—the others being gold, platinum and palladium—silver is up 74% this year, on track to be the second-best performing commodity after palladium, which is up 86%.  Gold, by contrast, is up 26% and copper just under 28%.

Prices are rising despite oversupply and a lackluster recovery in industrial demand.  Many analysts expected those factors would keep a lid on prices in 2010.  What they didn’t expect was an overwhelming flow of money into the market from investors eager to ride a commodities rally.

“This is a story almost entirely about investment,” says Stephen Briggs, senior metals strategist at BNP Paribas.

– “Price of Silver Soaring: Investor Fueled 74% Gains Dwarf Gold; Race To Open Mines”, The Wall Street Journal, December 27, A1

Disclosure: Top Gun has no position in The Silver ETF (SLV).