Silver to move sideways, while new palladium uses temper platinum outlook

The strength of the US dollar had been undermining prices for silver, platinum and palladium in recent months, but despite new industrial applications and speculative investment interest, the three precious metals had different market circumstances and divergent outlooks. London-based Thompson Reuters analyst William Tankard on Sunday told delegates attending the world’s largest mining-industry trade show, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s yearly convention, in Toronto, that the US dollar had strengthened by 18% since January last year, pressuring the silver price to drop 17% in the period and platinum to decrease by 15%, while palladium, despite being exposed to downside potential, had bucked the trend to gain 12%.