#precious-metals-silver-gold

#precious-metals-silver-gold

"This is a system shock," says Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group. "You have a material energy supply disruption and a structural shift toward fragmentation."

The Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF is the sharpest instrument for investors seeking direct exposure to copper prices, tracking the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Copper Miners Index. This fund focuses solely on copper equities, avoiding dilution from other metals.

Gold pays no interest or dividends, making its appeal highly sensitive to what investors can earn elsewhere. When real yields fall, gold becomes comparatively more attractive. The 10-year Treasury yield has dropped from 4.29% in early February to 4.06% as of early March, coinciding directly with gold pushing to new highs.

Part of the reason may lie in the fact that geopolitical risks had already been significantly priced in earlier. Prior to the correction, gold had risen for four consecutive weeks, pushing prices close to $5,420/oz and creating conditions for investment funds as well as retail traders to take profits, thereby triggering a sharp short-term pullback.

Persistent tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East sustain the demand for safe-haven assets. However, the surge in oil prices raised concerns about inflationary pressures, pushing up inflation expectations and lifting Treasury yields, which could continue to weigh on gold.

On one hand, the precious metal continues to benefit from its traditional role as a safe-haven asset amid a tense geopolitical backdrop. On the other hand, rising inflation concerns, fuelled by higher oil prices, are affecting the outlook for monetary policy and limiting further upside.

The current decline in silver prices is not merely a temporary correction, but a deeper repricing of market expectations regarding the path of U.S. interest rates, which remains the most influential factor in the short term for non-yielding assets.

Silver has experienced a remarkable bull market, more than quadrupling in value from around $30 (24.54) per ounce at the start of the year to an all-time high of $120.44 per ounce (28 grams) on Thursday (January 29). At the beginning of last year, the metal traded on COMEX the commodity division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) near $30 in January and hovered between $37 and $40 through the summer before breaking decisively higher.