Silver Stuck at $17.50, Investors Eye Resumption of Trade Talks

Silver is showing little movement for a third successive day. In Monday’s European session, the metal is trading at $17.45, down $0.07, or 0.51% on the day. 

Silver Yawns After Soft U.S. Jobs Data

The U.S. wrapped up the week with September employment numbers. The indicators disappointed as nonfarm payrolls and wage growth both missed their estimates. Nonfarm payrolls came in at 136 thousand, shy of the forecast of 145 thousand. Wage growth fell to 0.0%, down from 0.4% a month earlier. The soft releases are further confirmation that the U.S. economy slowed down in the second quarter. However, investor reaction was muted, as both gold and silver failed to take advantage of the soft employment numbers.

U.S-China Trade Talks Resume This Week

After a lengthy pause, U.S. and China trade representatives will meet in Washington on Thursday. Previous rounds of talks were unsuccessful, and the upcoming round of negotiations may prove to be no different. At the same time, both the U.S. and Chinese economies have lost steam due to the ongoing trade war, which may lead to greater flexibility to reach some sort of agreement, even if some issues are left unresolved. Any signs of progress in the talks could boost investor risk appetite and weigh on safe-haven assets such as silver. Later in the week, the U.S. releases the Federal Reserve minutes and consumer inflation, events which should be treated as market-movers.

Silver Technical Analysis

Silver broke above resistance above 17.50 on Wednesday but has been unable to put any distance above this line. I expect this line to continue to be tested on Monday. On the upside, there is resistance at the round number of 18.00. On the downside, 16.90 was tested early last week. Below, the 200-EMA is providing support at 16.19, which has held since the first week of August.