Silver Price Continues To Lead

London (May 30)  Since falling to a low of $16.06 on May 9, just 36 cents above a level of critical technical support, the price of silver has recovered in convincing fashion. As of Friday, May 26, the price of the volatile precious metal that tends to attract speculative interest was trading at $17.30 per ounce. The midpoint of the price range in silver since the April 27 highs at $18.725 and the May 9 lows only 12 days later that took the price $2.665 or 14.2% lower stands at around the $17.40 level. Meanwhile, gold is currently trading above its midpoint from the highs at the end of April to the lows on the same day that silver hit bottom but gold's volatility leads it to have less dramatic price variance than its precious little brother.

Gold may be above its midpoint of the recent move from high to low but it is silver that has led the way throughout most of 2017, and it is likely it will continue to do just that over the weeks ahead.

Silver led precious metals lower

Silver has been a leader throughout this year when it comes to the path of least resistance for gold.

Click to enlarge   Source: CQG

As the daily chart of July COMEX silver futures highlights, the precious metal reached a low of $15.86 per ounce at the end of December 2016, and it took off to reach a high of $18.60 by February 27, silver appreciated by 17.3% over the period. A correction of 9.2% to lows of $16.89 on March 15 followed, but silver turned around and made a higher high at $18.725 on April 17. Silver rallied 10.9% and the deepest correction of the year followed taking the metal to lows of $16.06 on May 9, a decline of 14.2%. The most recent rally has taken silver back to a high of $17.38 on May 26, an 8.2% gain. Silver has been moving all over the map in 2017 and gold has been following, but its price changes on a percentage basis have been much tamer.

Source: SeekingAlpha