Silver soars past $18 as dollar careens to lowest since early 2015

Silver futures jumped one percent in American trade to the highest since April 20, as the dollar index slumped to the lowest since January 6, 2015, following a basket of data from the US, the world's largest economy. 

As of 06:16 GMT, silver futures due on December 15 rallied 1.01% to $18.090 an ounce from the opening of $17.910, while the dollar index declined 0.65% to 91.69 from the opening of 92.29. 

Earlier US data showed unemployment claims rose past expectations to 298 thousand, marking the highest since March, 2015, while the final readings for non-farm productivity and labor unit costs showed an acceleration of the former and a growth slowdown of the later in the second quarter. 

Otherwise, the dollar index gave up ground recently as chances of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike for a third time this year shrank, especially after the unemployment rate rose while the pace of job creation slowed down in August.

We also saw unemployment claims surge last week, in turn underpinning dollar-denominated silver futures, with risk aversion playing a similar positive role for the precious metal on North Korea nuclear concerns.