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The price of silver rose to a 30-year high on Monday and gold was approaching its all-time peak after Ben Bernanke raised the prospect of an expansion of the Federal Reserve’s programme of quantitative easing.
Silver has risen 10 per cent in the past week, and 66 per cent since August, as concerns over the debasement of paper currencies have boosted its appeal.
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Comments from Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggesting that the US central bank could increase its $600bn quantitative easing programme, weighed on the dollar on Monday morning and buoyed precious metals.
Spot silver gained as much as 1.9 per cent to trade at $29.90 a troy ounce, the highest since the Hunt brothers cornered the market and sent the price to $50 in 1980.
Investors also see it as a cheaper alternative to gold, and so more likely to see a rapid rise in price. Gold rose to $1,418.55 on Monday before slipping later in the session as the dollar recovered against the euro.
Edel Tully, precious metals strategist at UBS in London, said she expected gold to test its all-time nominal high of $1,424.10 “as the undercurrent of buying overwhelms investor profit-taking”.
“Precious metals generally should be supported this week by the renewed focus on US quantitative easing following Bernanke’s comments,” she said.
Palladium was hovering near a nine-year high of $776.22 a troy ounce set on Friday, while platinum slipped to $1,717 a troy ounce.
Elsewhere, European milling wheat hit a new two-year high, surpassing the peak it hit in the wake of Russia’s decision to ban grain exports in August. The benchmark March milling wheat futures in Paris rose to €238.75 a tonne. CBOT December wheat, the US benchmark, gained 0.1 per cent to $7.39 a bushel.
Emmanuel Jayet, agricultural commodities analyst at Société Générale, said he expected European wheat to rise further relative to the US contract.
“Europe is exporting wheat at a brisk pace,” Mr Jayet said. “European wheat exports are going to have to slow down in the second half of the marketing season. But this will only happen when European wheat is no longer competitively priced against US wheat.”
