Silver Price Resume Uptrend on Soft US Jobs, Strong Gold

The Silver price has been following Gold recently, with XAG heading toward $25. On Tuesday we saw a retreat, but the soft ADP employment and US JOLTS job opening figures earlier today, pushed the USD lower and Silver higher, with Jerome Powell also adding to the momentum, as he left markets uncertain after his testimony.

Silver Daily Chart – Moving Averages Have Been Broken

Silver was finding resistance at moving averages throughout this year, which were keeping it in check below $23,50. But in the last several days we have seen a strong rally in XAG/USD, which has sent the price of Silver above the moving averages on the daily chart. Today we saw some soft figures from the US labour market, which increased the bid for safe havens, such as Gold XAU and Silver XAG.

US January JOLTS Job Openings

• US January JOLTS job openings 8.863m vs 8.900m expected
• Prior was 9.026m (revised to 8.889m)
• Quits rate 2.1% vs 2.2% prior
• Layoffs and discharges unchanged at 1.6 million
• Hires unchanged at 5.7m
• Separations 5.3m vs 5.4m prior
• Full report

The US January Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed that job openings for the month came in at 8.863 million, slightly below the expected 8.900 million, continuing the softening trend. This figure was also a decrease from the previous month’s reading of 9.026 million, which was also revised down to 8.889 million.

Overall, while job opportunities fell somewhat, the labour market still remains strong, with hiring and separations remaining stable. However, the fall in the quit rate may indicate some stabilization or reluctance among workers to leave their jobs willingly.

But before the JOLTYS job openings report was released, we had the US ADP National Employment numbers for February, which showed an increase in employment of 140,000 jobs, slightly below the expected 150,000. This figure represents the number of nonfarm private sector jobs added during the month. The previous month’s figure was revised up from +107,000 to +111,000.

ADP Employment Report for February

• ADP February employment +140K vs +150K expected
• Prior was +107K (revised to +111K)
• Full report

The median change in annual pay:

• Job stayers 5.1% versus 5.2% last month
• Job changers 7.6% versus 7.2% last month

Silver Live Chart