Silver settles lower as dollar advances

Silver futures tilted lower in American trade away from November 20 highs, as the dollar index advanced following a basket of data from the US, while Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester spoke earlier today. 

As of 06:58 GMT, silver futures due on March 15 fell 0.08% to $17.255 an ounce from the opening of $17.269, while the dollar index rose 0.11% to 91.96 from the opening of 91.85. 

Earlier US data showed the economy added 148 thousand new jobs in December, missing expectations of 191K, and sharply down from November's 252K reading, revised from 228K. 

The US unemployment rate steadied at 4.1% in December in line with expectations, hanging at the lowest rate since December 200. 

US average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in December in line with expectations, up from November's 0.1% rise, revised from 0.2%. 

The US Services PMI slowed down to 55.9 in December from 57.4 in November, missing expectations of 57.6. 

The productivity and business activity gauge in the same survey dipped to 57.3 from 61.3, while new orders fell to 54.3 from 58.7. Employment widened to 56.3 from 55.3, while inventories slowed down to 53.5 from 54.5. 

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester participated earlier today in a panel discussion titled "Coordinating Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policies for Macroeconomic Stability" at the American Economics Association Conference, in Philadelphia.

The Federal Reserve released the minutes of the December 12-13 meeting, at which policymakers voted to increase overnight interest rates by 25 basis points to between 1.25% and 1.50%, while releasing their three-year forecasts for interest rates, inflation, growth, and unemployment.

Otherwise, White House economic adviser Gary Kohen said earlier that the stock market is not too high right now, and the tax cuts have begun to have an impact on the economy, with wages rising and optimism improving.

Last month, President Donald Trump singed into law the $1.5 trillion tax reform bill, which cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, while also signing a stopgap government spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, in turn underpinning Wall Street to successive record highs.