Silver Drops Below $17 For Second Time in 3 Days

Trouble keeps on piling up for silver. The price of the white metal took an early morning nose dive, falling below the $17 per ounce watermark for second time in three days, marking the lowest price in nearly four years. It’s a far cry from the days of $49 per ounce last seen in April 2011.

This year has not been kind to the white metal, with it dropping about 19 percent in the last quarter and down 22 percent this year.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, analysts see the white metal’s price intrinsically tied to that of gold and with a less than stellar gold market, it’s taken a toll on the silver market.

“When you have a down market – and the price of gold over the last three years has been in a downward trend – silver will go down by more than gold. It’s as simple as that,” said Victor Thianpiriya, a commodities analyst with ANZ. “We’re just seeing a bit of speculative liquidation across all precious metals and silver is bearing the brunt of that.”

City Index points to the resurgent US dollar and a mooted plan to raise US interest rates as a contributing factor to the white metal’s fall. Worries about China’s appetite for silver and other precious metals have also hampered the price.