Miners rise with gold and silver prices on bank sector worries, jobs data
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Precious metals miners are rallying Friday, as gold and silver prices rise in a safe haven trade on concerns over the banking sector following the closure of tech lender Silicon Valley Bank and a drop in U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar following the latest monthly U.S. jobs data.
April Comex gold (XAUUSD:CUR) +1.7% to $1,866.20/oz, while May silver (XAGUSD:CUR) +1.9% to $20.55/oz.
ETFs: (NYSEARCA:GLD), (GDX), (GDXJ), (IAU), (NUGT), (PHYS), (SLV), (PSLV), (SIVR), (SIL), (SILJ), (SLVP)
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) +3% after suriging as much as 4.8% for its biggest intraday gain since early January; some of the sector's biggest gainers are Harmony Gold (HMY) +8.9%, AngloGold Ashanti (AU) +5.4%, Gold Fields (GFI) +5%, Silvercrest Metals (SILV) +4.9%, Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) +4.7%, Iamgold (IAG) +4.5%, Equinox Gold (EQX) +4.5%.
The government reported the U.S. created a stronger than expected 311K new jobs in February, while the unemployment rate edged up to 3.6% from 3.4% and hourly wages posted their smallest increase in a year, up just 0.2%.
But for precious metals, the shock in shares of Silicon Valley Bank parent SVB Financial "has proven much stronger, driving gold higher as banking shares lead global stock markets lower amid sudden fears over credit quality and counterparty risk," BullionVault director Adrian Ash wrote.
Gold is "reacting to worries over contagion in the banking system," Gold Newsletter's Brien Lundin said, as "investors are growing increasingly concerned about the entire banking sector."
Gold futures have been falling during the week after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said "inflationary pressures are running higher than expected " and left the door open to more interest rate hikes than previously planned.