Silver prices rose in European trade on Friday on track for the second daily profit away from a five-week trough, while the dollar slows down.

The white metal is heading for the fourth weekly loss in a row on concerns about demand in China, the world's largest metals consumer. 

Prices Today

Silver prices rose 0.45% to $22.80 an ounce, with a session-low at $22.66, after rising 0.2% on Thursday, the first profit in four days away from a five-week trough at $22.62.

The Dollar

The dollar index fell 0.2% on Friday against a basket of major rivals, in turn boosting dollar-denominated commodities such as silver.

Such a decline comes ahead of crucial US data later today, including producer prices for July, and the University of Michigan's economic confidence survey.

Weekly Trading

Silver is up 3.6% so far this week, on track for the fourth weekly loss in a row, the longest  such streak of weekly losses since January.

Such heavy losses come amid concerns about declining demand in China and low investments in the non-yielding metal as US bond yields rally.

Chinese Demand

China marked the worst decline in its exports last month, since February 2020 according to official data.

US commodity sales in foreign markets also tumbled 14.5% in July, the third such monthly decline in a row.

The prospects of a potential recession in the US and Europe in turn hurt global demand on Chinese products in recent months.

The Chinese economy itself is still suffering the consequences of the long Covid 19 shutdowns. 

Investment Demand

As dollar and US treasury yields rally, they attract investments away from silver and gold, with markets still speculating about another Fed rate hike this year.

Sterling rose in European trade against a basket of rivals on Friday, starting to recover from a week low against US dollar and heading for the first profit in four days following strong UK data.

Such data bolstered the case for more interest rate hikes by Bank of England this year, and raised chances for such a hike at the September meeting.

GBP/USD rose 0.4% to 1.2723, with a week low at 1.2666, after losing 0.35% yesterday, the third loss in a row as the greenback attracted haven investments.

Strong Data

Recent UK data showed the economy expanded unexpectedly in the second quarter, showcasing the flexibility of the UK economy despite the tight monetary conditions.

UK GDP grew by 0.2% in the second quarter, while analysts expected no growth.

On a monthly scale, the GDP grew 0.5% in June, beating estimates of  a 0.2% growth rate.

Recent data also showed a spike in UK industrial and manufacturing production in June, another sign of strong growth in the UK economy.

UK Rates

Such data showed the economy is weathering the tighter monetary conditions, which sent interest rates to 15-year highs at 5.25%.

Such developments all but confirmed the Bank of England will likely interest rates by 25 basis points at the September meeting.

Artificial Intelligence offers many contributions in support of the renewable energy industry, especially in regards to reducing the carbon footprint and ameliorating the ongoing crisis of the climate change. 

However, the usage of AI itself could leave a huge carbon footprint, which presents contradictions. 

Changing the world to rely on green energies will require an unprecedentedly fast transformation of the systems in place, relying heavily on highly powered computing operation and AI.

AI's role in energy is only starting, and investments in the sprawling energy networks are really utilizing the advanced technology, with Bloomberg estimating huge savings in green energy operations due to the use of AI.

The Contradiction

However, massive computing powers require massive energy input, in turn leaving a huge carbon footprint, similar to what Bitcoin did, and indeed, Science Alert estimates the information technology sector to be responsible alone for 2% of the global CO2 emissions. 

As a Guardian analyst said, "It doesn't make since to burn a forest then use AI to track deforestation". 

A stark example would be training GPT-3, the predecessor of ChatGPT, which requires nearly 1287 megawatts \ hour of electricity, and 10,000 computer chips, enough to power 121 US homes for an entire year, and enough to produce 550 tones of CO2. 

In short, we need to be rather cautious on the use of AI in green energy efforts, and measure its impact well to make sure it won't do more harm than good, not only in the energy sector, but also in other morality-related issues. 

US stock indices rose on Thursday after data showed US consumer prices were less than expected in July.

US consumer prices rose just 3.2% y/y in July, below expectations of 3.3%, while higher than 3% in the previous reading.

Core prices rose 4.7%, below estimates of 4.8%, and down from 4.8% in the previous reading.

‏Such data bolsters the case for no change in US interest rates at the Fed September meeting.

The Fed raised interest rates to 22 year highs to control inflation and brake the economy. 

Other data showed US unemployment claims rose to 248 thousand last week from 227 thousand, while analysts expected 231 thousand.

President Joe Biden lauded inflation data and said it showcased the strength of the economy.

He added that low-wage workers have gained in recent months with real wages increasing.

On trading, Dow Jones rose 0.5%, or 172 points as of 16:48 GMT to 35,295, while S&P 500 rose 0.5%, or 22 points to 4,488, as NASDAQ climbed 0.5%, or 67 points to 13,790.