Gold prices slipped from record highs and silver posted its biggest one-day loss since December 2008 after news broke that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Spot gold fell to nearly $1,540 an ounce after earlier hitting a fresh record high at $1,575.79. It then recovered to $1,553.00 an ounce against $1,563.65 late in New York on Friday.
Silver was bid at $45.12 an ounce against $47.80, having earlier fallen as low as $43.04.
Oil and gold fell as news of the death stripped out some of the risk premium that has been underpinning commodity prices, while the dollar rebounded from three-year lows, further pressuring gold, and stock markets climbed.
Silver tumbled 10 percent, its steepest fall since late 2008, hit by a recovery in the dollar, increased margins for futures trading and a technical overhang after a 170 percent rally over the last 12 months to a record high last week.
“News about Osama and the 13 percent margin increase – the second in a week – hit the market at the worst possible time,” said Ole Hansen, senior manager at Saxo Bank. “Also, (there was) news Friday evening that professionals scaled back silver exposure by 26 percent as of last Tuesday.” “We are seeing volatility at an unprecedented level here and the fight between the bulls and bears has entered an interesting stage,” he said, adding; “I like gold. Just a switch from silver to gold could lend support.”
The CME Group Inc, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade, said it would raise maintenance margins for COMEX 5000 Silver futures by 13.2 percent to $10,750 per contract from $9,500 effective Friday. This is the second rise this week following a 9.2 percent margin increase on Monday, making it more expensive for silver speculators to trade in.
Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed speculators cut bullish bets in COMEX silver futures and options to the lowest since early February. Some traders put down silver’s spectacular fall to an unwinding of a short gold-silver ratio position, compounded by automated stop-loss orders.
The gold-silver ratio, used to measure the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold, rebounded to about 35 from below 32, its lowest level since the early 1980s. This compares with an average ratio of 64 in the past 29 years. “There is nothing from a fundamental perspective to cause a fall this large. Silver has been the most rapidly appreciating of the metals in the past months and if there was one that looked a bit frothy it was silver,” said Commodities Economist Ben Westmore at National Australia Bank. “This is mostly technical. We expect silver to be in relatively close step with gold and while both have risen strongly, silver may have moved a bit too far ahead.” Markets across large parts of Asia and much of Europe were closed for May Day and Labour day holidays, reducing the number of market participants and making for volatile trade.
