Silver trades above $18 on steady haven demand

Silver futures rose in American trade to near five-month highs, as the dollar index gave up ground following a spate of data from the US, the world's largest economy, while markets assess the impact of North Korea's new nuclear test, the sixth such successful one, last Sunday. 

As of 06:06 GMT, silver futures due on December 15 rose 0.41% to $18.016 an ounce from the opening of $17.980, while the dollar index declined 0.13% to 92.13 from the opening of 92.25. 

Earlier US data showed the trade balance with a deficit that rose below expectations to $43.7 billion in July, while the ISM services PMI rose to 55.3 in August, nonetheless missing analysts' expectations.

Silver futures are still drawing support from rising political tensions regarding the North Korean nuclear issue, after Pyonyang announced the success of a Hydrogen bomb test yesterday that cab be put on long-term ballistic missiles, while noting that the last test is considerably stronger than past nuclear tests. 

In response, US president Donald Trump called for imposing economic and trade sanctions on any country with trade relations to the North Korean regime, inflaming China, Pyongyang's largest trade partner, which said earlier this week that these warnings were "unacceptable". 

Similarly, US Defense Secretary James Mattis warned of a massive military response to any attack on his country or any of its allies, including US pacific island Guam, noting in a press conference in front of the White House that Washington "doesn't look for an obliteration of any country, especially of North Korea, but as we said, all options are on the table". 

Otherwise, the dollar index gave up ground recently as chances of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike for a third time this year shrank, in turn underpinning the dollar-denominated silver futures.