Silver holds for first session in 3 amid dollar's decline

Silver futures fluctuated higher in a narrow range during the Asian session amid the decline of the dollar index for the first time in five sessions, according to the inverse relationship between them, and on the threshold of developments and economic data expected Tuesday by the US economy, the largest economy in the world, which includes the lunch of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington.

As of 5:11 GMT. Silver futures (July delivery) rose 0.07% to currently trade at $14.84 per ounce compared to the opening at $14.83 per ounce, amid the decline of the US dollar index by 0.09% to 97.44 compared to the opening at 97.53 .

Investors are currently looking for the US economy to release housing data with the Housing Starts and Building Permits reading for May, where we expect to see about 1,290K building permits versus a rise by 0.6% (1,296K) in April, while the Housing Starts may also show little stability at 1,235K homes, down from 5.7% in April.

This comes in line with the launch of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting today to continue until tomorrow in Washington, where interest rates are expected to be kept between 2.25% and 2.50% for the fourth meeting in a row. while the committee will release its forecasts for inflation and unemployment as well as the future interest rates for the next three years followed by the forthcoming press conference of Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell.

We would like to point out that US Federal Reserve Governor Paul Powell recently expressed his concern about how and when the trade tensions will be resolved, as he considers the Federal Commission to take seriously inflationary pressures for an extended period that may affect inflation forecasts later, as the Federal Reserve will abandon its policy of patience and reduce interest on federal funds in the coming period.

In another context, we followed at the beginning of this week, President Donald Trump saying that the presence of his counterpart, Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the G20 summit later this month in Osaka, Japan, is not so important, as it is likely that a trade agreement will be reached with his country and China in the end.

In the same context, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross yesterday noted that there is a chance to reach a trade agreement between Washington and Beijing, but that will not happen during the events of the G20 summit, explaining that the negotiations with China is complex and there will not be confirmed results until a deal is reached, adding that the US administration should be judged based on its results on the trade negotiations, while addressing the desire of his country to achieve a genuine free trade in the car markets.

On the other hand, China's Ministry of Commerce yesterday said it had decided to increase the anti-dumping duties imposed on certain types of imports from America and Europe, especially steel bars, from 58% to 147%, following the indian government imposition of customs duties on 28 US products, in response to the US administration imposing duties on imports of steel and aluminum.

The Russian Ministry of Finance reported last month that the production of Russia of silver (the fourth largest producer of silver in the world) during the first three months of the year 2019 fell to 223.28 metric tons compared to 250.76 in the same period last year 2018, while more than 60% Of global demand for silver comes from the industrial sector, which is negatively affected by the trade protectionism pursued by the US administration and its trade war with China.