Silver Pares Losses in First Week of May

Silver prices tumbled for much of the week before recovering Friday to pare losses.

Metals were led up and down over concerns of the Greek debt woes, with added worries that the crisis could spread to other euro-zone countries.

The fears helped safe-haven investments, like gold, but brought down industrial metals that would suffer weakened demand should the crisis deepen enough to jeopardize a global recovery.

Silver eventually rallied on Friday, with analysts saying some investors were buying the metal as an alternative to gold which was too expensive for them.

New York silver for July delivery finished at $18.451 an ounce, falling 19 cents, or 1.0 percent for the week. It rebounded 93.6 cents alone on Friday. Silver reached a low on Thursday of $17.315 an ounce.

The London Silver fix closed earlier Friday to $17.700 an ounce, dropping 92 cents or 4.9 percent for the week. The metal was set at its lowest $17.630 point on Wednesday.

For two quotes of the week:

"For a large part of this week the silver market has behaved like a classic physical commodity market facing the prospect of a derailed recovery," wrote Nell Sloane on StockMarketsReview.com. "At times silver did see some flight to quality buying but seeing a trading range this week of roughly $1.72 an ounce highlights the extreme uncertainty facing the market."

"Silver’s cheap," Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago, was quoted on Bloomberg. "It got hammered earlier this week and Europe just came in and scooped it all up."

London precious metal weekly prices follow:

London Fix Precious Metal Prices
	Gold		Silver	Platinum		Palladium
	AM	PM		AM	PM	AM	PM
4/30/2010	1175.25	1179.25	18.620	1737.00	1738.00	551.00	552.00
5/7/2010	1199.60	1202.25	17.700	1661.00	1651.00	507.00	505.00

 

London Weekly Bullion Prices
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver		X	-4.9%	-$0.92
Gold	X		2.0%	$23.00
Platinum		X	-5.0%	-$87.00
Palladium		X	-8.5%	-$47.00