silversky

There are lots of opposing indications. Big vs small is a very different picture. Lots of small players in the building game are doing very nicely at the moment. They've never been so busy as people want extensions and the like added to their properties. There has been a large inflation in the price of materials, and a fair few issues with availability. How much of that is really demand? And how much of it is lack of supply? It's certainly true that labour is busy which indicates that there is strong demand currently. But on the other side of that equation is supply issues. During lockdown, bags of plaster quadrupled in price. Plasterers were selling van loads of it that they'd stacked up on job sites before the closure and electing to stay at home instead. There is definitely still an artificial supply constraint which has confused things in just about every sector. Lumber is supposedly at an all time low availability, they can't chop it down quick enough and it's hard to get hold of for the little guy at times (worldwide). But there are rumours of huge stockpiles being laid in by big players in the states, which are being accumulated rather than used. Who knows whether they will be using it this year or not. Sunak is complaining that restrictions must be eased sooner, or there will be damage to the economy. This is in direct opposition to the IMF and talk of huge growth this year in the UK. I remain mindful of all those trillions given away in largesse. They will have to have an impact on real inflation at some point and I'm reasonably confident that some of that money ended up being saved by people in lockdown and is now working it's way into home improvement and building projects. How much longer it will go on is anyone's guess. Perhaps higher energy prices will start to cool things a little. If the recent announcements on the green revolution come to pass across the west, demand for industrial metal will surely rise. I can see some divergence between gold and silver in this case.

The interesting thing is that there's little chance that the economy is going to be doing great for quite some time to come yet. A few more jobs opened up certainly does not make a return to normal, this is more like a trading opportunity for that story which is still far over the horizon. If the economy really was back in full swing, along with inflation, industrial demand for silver would likely be in a bit more buoyant. Gold I can understand, but silver is going to play a key role in this 'so called' green revolution.

This is not probably the best thread to ask such a question on but I'll give you my opinion. If you're looking for re-saleability, the sovereigns are probably the best. Only because as gold rises in value they are not going to become such a large value as an oz coin will be. Others will have different views I'm sure. Secondary market sovereigns are likely to be the closest to spot that you can buy and you'll be able to sell them easily just the same. If you're looking at special 1 oz coins then all sorts of other variables come into play.

Brought back down by gold, which fell below its weekly open. Copper and Iron have been on the march all this year with scrap vehicles doubling in value over a short period of time. There must be considerable pressure building on silver.