It’s been a crazy, volatile week for precious metals. The Reddit Raiders pushed silver to over $29 an ounce and the white metal took gold up with it. But the run was short-lived and we saw a big sell-off in both metals later in the week. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey tries to cut through all the smoke and mirrors and talks about the underlying fundamentals in both the gold and silver markets.
Last year’s surge in demand for investment gold and silver continued into January if sales at the US Mint are any indication.
American Gold Eagle bullion coin sales were up 455% in 2020 and the selling continued through the first month of 2021. The mint called the current market demand for precious metals coins “exceptional.”
On Monday, Feb. 1, Peter appeared on NTD Business to talk about the attempted short squeeze on GameStop and silver. He said we shouldn’t compare GameStop stock to silver. Unlike GameStop, there are fundamentally sound reasons to buy silver, with or without the endorsement of the Reddit traders.
When the Reddit Raiders turned their attention to silver, Peter tweeted that they were getting smarter. “Silver stocks are actually cheap and represent good investment value. The fact that some investors were foolish enough to short these stocks makes their trade even better.”
Total gold supply fell 4% year-on-year in 2020 to 4,644 tons. It was the largest annual decline since 2013, according to data from the World Gold Council.
The decline was primarily driven by disruptions in mine production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold mine output fell 4% on the year. More significantly, it marked the second straight yearly drop in mine production and continued a trend of flatlining gold mine output.
The Reddit Raiders turned their eyes toward silver over the weekend. Interest in the white metal sparked a surge in retail demand and pushed the spot price of silver briefly over $29 an ounce. As Peter Schiff put it, the Reddit Riders were riding silver instead of piling into heavily shorted stocks.
But how should we look at this recent run-up in silver? And where might it go from here? Peter talked about it in his podcast.
Silver is getting a lot of attention right now thanks to the so-called Reddit Raiders. But as Peter Schiff pointed out in a recent podcast, silver is a fantastic buy right now even absent the attention of message board investors. In fact, silver was poised to go up even before the Reddit crowd looked its way.
Overall, the fundamentals are extremely bullish for silver in the long-term, without or without a push from the Reddit Raiders.
As of Monday morning, the Reddit Raiders had driven silver to a 6-month high of over $29 an ounce. Peter Schiff talked about what’s going on in the silver market on his podcast Friday. He said that silver is a great buy right now, with or without the attention of the Reddit message boards.
If you follow the markets at all, you’ve heard about the big surge in GameStop stock driven at least in part by retail investors informed by social media. Now the Reddit investors have turned their eyes to silver. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the GameStop phenomenon and argues that there are good reasons to be bullish on silver – not just the attention of the Reddit crowd. He also touches on this week’s Fed meeting and gold demand dynamics.
Investment demand for gold set a new record in 2020, but it was not enough to offset a big drop in consumer demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold demand was up substantially in both ETFs, and for gold bars and coins
Overall, gold demand fell to 3,759 tons in 2020, according to the Gold Demand Trends Full Year and Q4 2020 report by the World Gold Council. That was a 14% drop in annual demand.
But despite the weak overall demand, the price of gold set a record in dollar terms last year and briefly pushed above $2,000 an ounce.
Bills introduced in the Mississippi House and the Tennessee Senate would repeal state sales taxes on precious metals bullion. This would not only relieve some of the tax burdens on investors in those states; it would also take a small step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities.
