Silver moved 8% higher ahead of the EU open

London (Feb 1)  There is only one place to start. As promised the band of Reddit traders have piled into the Silver ETF (SLV) and spot silver has pushed up a whopping 8% leading into the EU open. Gold is also trading higher but has only moved 0.80% higher. Copper is also moving in the right direction trading 0.90% higher.

The general risk tone has been positive as the Nikkei 225 in Japan closed 1.55% higher, Australia's ASX moved up 0.84% and the Shanghai Composite traded 0.64% in the black.

In the FX space, the pound was the main gainer with GBP/USD moving 0.20% higher along with AUD/USD (0.17%) and NZD/USD (0.19%).

in China, the market received the latest Caixin manufacturing PMI for January which missed expectations of 52.7 to print at 51.5 (prior 53.0). Also over the weekend manufacturing PMI marginally fell short at 51.3 vs exp 51.6 (prev 51.9) and it was much of the same for non-manufacturing PMI (52.4 vs prev 55.7). At least all the numbers were all still in the expansionary territory above the pivotal 50 area.

In Italy, Italia Viva's Renzi is calling on the finance minister Gualtieri to be replaced in the discussions to form a new coalition with a government led by PM Conte.

Russian protests continue to garner attention as more than 5000 people were arrested over the weekend after showing their support for opposition leader Navalny.

On the COVID-19 front, there is still a huge battle for vaccine doses as the EU has said they will ban exports of the vaccine if their agreement with AstraZeneca is not met. AstraZeneca said it will deliver an additional 9 million doses to the EU in the first quarter.

A group of Republican Senators (10) have written to new President Joe Biden with an alternative proposal for the pandemic stimulus which claimed they will win bipartisan support.

Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include manufacturing PMI's from the major nations, US construction spending and the EU unemployment rate.

KitcoNews