Silver Trades Near $60 as Yields and Jobs Data Pull in Opposite Directions

Silver futures have been trading near $60 per ounce as traders wait to see if the price will hold. The COMEX front-month contract settled at $60.71 an ounce on Friday, capping a seven-day decline of 6.2% that has left silver roughly 50% below its 52-week peak.

The recent weakness in silver is largely attributed to rising US Treasury yields and a stronger dollar, which have raised the cost of holding non-yielding assets. Hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve have also kept pressure on the market through the week.

Despite softer employment figures on Friday that offered a brief reprieve, the weekly loss was not erased. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the August PCE price index rose 0.3%, with the core rate up 0.2%, but this was below forecasts and did little to revive hopes for less aggressive central bank moves.

New York Fed President John Williams added that policymakers are under no obligation to rush further rate moves, but the market's response was muted as the front-month COMEX contract still closed at $60.71 per troy ounce.