Silver rebounds after Friday’s plunge

Silver rebounded and tracked golds upward direction on Monday after plunging more than 4% on Friday as positive U.S. labor data spurred concern the Federal Reserve will wind down its bond purchasing program.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, silver futures for September delivery traded at $19.008 per troy ounce at 10:17 GMT, up 1.45% on the day. Prices held in range between $19.080 and $18.675, which was hit during the Asian session. The precious metal tumbled 4.5% on Friday following data released by the U.S. labor department and settled the week 3.92% lower after plunging 11% during the past two weeks.

Silver is the worst performer in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities, posting a loss of almost 36% this year amid speculation Fed will taper its Quantitative Easing program. With the U.S. economy showing consistent signs of recovery and inflation being stable and low, demand prospects for precious metals is grim as they are generally used to hedge against high inflation. Ben Bernanke announced after the latest FOMC meeting that the central bank will most likely scale back its bond purchasing program during the second half of the year, if the economy’s recovery keeps in line with Fed’s expectations. According to Bernanke, Fed’s moves are tied to what happens in the economy and the central bank has no fixed plan, but sentiment points at reducing bond purchases. Bernanke said that if the economy continues to improve in line with Fed’s projections, it would be “appropriate to moderate the monthly pace of purchases later this year”, and end the program as the unemployment rate drops to 7%, which Fed expects to happen around mid-2014.

Investors are looking ahead at Wednesdays Fed minutes where additional information will be provided about the central banks future monetary policy. So far, most of the key U.S. economic indicators have shown readings that meet and in some cases exceed expectations, which is in line with Feds requirements to start scaling back the bond purchases. Last Friday, the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy created more jobs than anticipated and Mays reading was revised upwards, pointing at consistent recovery of the labor market. Non-Farm Payrolls surpassed expectations for a 165 000 reading, surging to 195 000, aligning to May’s revised reading. The Unemployment Rate for June in the world’s biggest economy failed to meet expectations for a 7.5% decline but remained unchanged at 7.6% compared to May.

Average Weekly Hours met projections and remained the same compared to June at 34.5 hours, whereas Average Hourly Earnings surged to 0.4%, surpassing projections of a 0.2% gain and above May’s 0.1% revised reading.

Elsewhere on the market, gold, platinum and palladium continued to climb throughout the day. The yellow metal traded at $1 229.95 an ounce at 10:14 GMT, up 1.42% for the day. Prices ranged between daily high and low of $1 231.85 and $1 214.55 respectively. Platinum October futures marked a 1.29% daily gain. The precious metal stood at $1 343.50 at 10:16 GMT, ranging between $1 346.10 and $1 324.15. Palladium for September delivery traded at $684.30, up 1.00%, varying between days high and low at $688.60 and $673.30 respectively.