Silver, gold prices take slight hit from dollar

WALLACE — As the dollar has begun to regain market value in the last couple of weeks, silver prices have slowly receded a bit from their near-record form earlier this spring.

Silver was listed at $13.093 per troy oz. and gold at $811.10 per troy oz. on the New York stock market Tuesday. Gold had risen from its price of $786 per troy oz. last Friday, but is falling far behind its record high of $1,008 per troy oz. set on March 14 of this year.

At market’s close Friday, silver was listed at $12.801 per troy ounce, much lower than its listing of $17.325 per troy ounce two weeks prior.

Wallace Pennaluna broker Jerome Bunde is not convinced that the precious metals market is in any way threatened by the newest slump.

“The dollar has been doing a little better and the commodities market including metals have been down recently,” Bunde Said. “But the fact remains that the underlying problem behind the dollar’s weaknesses is still there, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

The local metals market expert has watched the appeal towards investing in metals grow exponentially this year as the dollar’s value has dropped drastically. Bunde said the fear-driven marketplace has investigators protecting their money to preserve its value right now, adding that as long as the global problems that created the market crisis exist the metals market will continue to succeed.

“Like I always say, governments buy gold, people buy silver — and I’ll stick with my silver and gold,” Bunde said. “Not that it’s the best thing for the country, but right now if you want to protect your assets from inflation metals are the sure way to go.”

Bunde said that he also expects silver and gold to level out with taking another run after Labor Day, adding that the future outlook of silver and gold is looking healthy.

“It’s certainly not time to start worrying about your money in gold and silver, but then again nobody ever wants to see their investments go down.”

Earlier this spring silver rivaled historic prices set in 1980 when the precious metal averaged between $21-$22 per ounce.