On Monday, smallholders delayed their bullish bets on the price of the solver Monday. On the Comex futures exchange, in Monday’s session over $30 an ounce, the March silver metal futures contract rose as much as 13 percent, before settling at $29.422 (up 9.3 percent ). Calls to buy paper money on ‘WSB’ have multiplied, implying that the aim was to “squeeze” the major investment banks that have invested in this metal.
Anyway, on Monday, silver mining share prices were also catapulted around the world: 23 percent for Coeur Mining and 12 percent for Wall Street Pan American Silver, 5.4 percent for Wheaton Precious Metals, and 22 percent for Toronto First Majestic Silver or 9 percent for London Fresnillo, 4 percent for Sydney South32 and 49 percent for Sydney Silver Mines.
Gold also improved on Monday, to a lesser degree, with the yellow metal contract for April maturity futures rising 0.7 percent to $1,863.90 an ounce.
In January, the Covid-19 pandemic resurgence weighed on industrial production. The Caixin/Markit manufacturing PMI in China, for example, dropped to 51.5 from 53.0 in December and 52.7 by consensus. When new export orders decreased due to the coronavirus resurgence, production slowed down. In the euro region, the final PMI measured by IHS Markit dropped from 55.2 in December 2020 to 54.8 in January (from a flash forecast of 54.7), even indicating a decline in the growth of the market.
In comparison, from 57.1 in December, the U.S. Markit Manufacturing PMI Final accelerated to 59.2 in January. The index, well above 50, still represents a strong expansion in domestic production activity in January. The ISM Manufacturing PMI index, for its part, came out a little more mixed in January at 58.7, compared to 60.7 in December and 60 in consensus. It remains at a high stage, however. The U.S. Markit Composite PMI Final and the ISM Non-Manufacturing Employment in January will be followed by investors on Wednesday.
On the other hand, in December in the United States, Construction Spending MoM stayed dynamic, with a 1 percent leap relative to November, compared to a forecast of 0.8 percent and after a 1.1 percent spike in November.
This week’s most awaited “stat” in the United States is arguably the January Non-Farm Payrolls, scheduled for Friday. After 140,000 layoffs in December and a steady Unemployment Rate of 6.7 percent, the consensus is for 50,000 work vacancies last month.
The Non-Farm Payrolls will be followed by the January ADP Employment Change report on Wednesday and by weekly Jobless Claim estimates on Thursday, as well as the Challenger employment analysis on Thursday.
Productivity statistics and Factory Orders would draw interest on Thursday, followed on Friday by the Balance of Trade in goods and services.
