Silver futures turn lower after hitting 14-week high

Investing.com - Silver futures fell for the first time in nine sessions on Monday, as investors cashed out of the market to lock in gains after prices rallied to a 14-week high earlier in the day.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, silver futures for September delivery traded at USD23.22 a troy ounce during European morning trade, down 0.4%.

Silver futures rose by as much as 1.5% earlier in the session to hit a daily high of USD23.60 a troy ounce, the strongest level since May 14.

Silver prices were likely to find support at USD21.71 a troy ounce, the low from August 15 and near-term resistance at USD23.75, the high from May 14.

The September contract settled up 1.7% at USD23.32 a troy ounce on Friday. Silver future prices surged 11.7% last week, the biggest weekly advance since September 2008.

Prices are up 21% since hitting a three-year low of USD18.19 on June 28, placing it in bull-market territory.

Market players were looking ahead to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting, due out on Wednesday, for further indications as to when the central bank may start to unwind its USD85 billion-a-month asset purchase program.

Moves in the silver price this year have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the U.S. central bank would end its quantitative easing program sooner-than-expected.

U.S. data on initial jobless claims and the housing sector later in the week will also be closely watched.

Market players have closely been looking out for U.S. data reports recently to gauge if they will strengthen or weaken the case for the Fed to reduce its bond purchases.

Any improvement in the U.S. economy was likely to reinforce the view that the central bank will begin to taper its bond purchase program in the coming months.

Elsewhere on the Comex, gold for December delivery rose 0.2% to trade at USD1,373.70 a troy ounce, while copper for September shed 0.4% to trade at USD3.349 a pound.