Silver Prices Take Breather Today Following 4% Gain Yesterday

New York (Jan 3)  Silver investors are catching their breath today. The precious metal rocketed higher yesterday as it regained the $20/oz level. It’s holding that level today and investors will be watching to see if it can form a new base here. Volume is expected to be on the lighter side once again today as some investors are still away for the holidays. A monster snow storm is impacting the Northeast as well today. States of Emergency have been declared in New York, New Jersey and other Northeastern states.

Stock investors along with commodity investors will be focusing on speeches from several Fed officials at an American Economic Association gathering in Philadelphia today. Investors will be looking for hints about future monetary policy from the Fed. The central bank started tapering QE by $10 billion in December. Now, investors want to know how often the taper will continue and what are the Fed’s thoughts for the economy as 2014 gets underway.

Those opposed to taper see the withdrawal of stimulus as hurting the economic recovery. We will have to wait for December’s economic data to see if that is true.

A quick look at silver prices shows the metal up $0.05 at $20.18/oz. 2014 has been off to a great start for silver investors. But, two positive days don’t make a trend.

Investors will want to pay close attention to December’s jobs report coming next week. If it disappoints, investors may start doubting the Fed’s decision to start tapering and could lead to more positive momentum for silver. A positive report will give investors even more confidence about the economy and should push stocks to more record highs.