Is silver back in the bull market?

It is silver's time to shine after the precious metal climbed for seven straight sessions to notch gains not seen in nearly five years, and analysts say its winning streak is far from over.

Silver prices rallied to almost $23 a troy ounce on Thursday, after logging collective gains of 17 percent in over the past seven sessions, as a surge in gold prices and a more positive outlook for global industrial production boosted sentiment.

"It's something that you can't really ignore at the moment...There is plenty of talk about silver being in a bull market now, after the recent gains, it does look like it is in really good stead," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at trading firm IG.

Silver prices, which are closely correlated to gold, have followed steep falls in the yellow metal this year. Silver plunged 40 percent from the highs of at the start of the year to lows of $18.19 in June 28, while gold dropped 29 percent over the same period.

Demand for the precious metals, which are viewed as safe havens, waned as investors grew more confident over a more stable global economy. However, prices have recovered in recent weeks as Fed dialogue suggested tapering plans could be delayed and a flare up of violence in Egypt renewed appetite for the safe haven assets. Read more >>

Gold, Silver In Asian Liquidation Mode

Spot Gold $1426 (from $1564 highs Friday)

As Asia opens to the bloodbath that occurred in precious metals on Friday in the US, it would appear that more than a few traders got the 'tap on the shoulder'. Shanghai futures are limit-down and spot gold and silver prices are plunging once again as we suspect forced margin-calls and the raising of cash (to cover extreme variation margin - or capital reserves) needed in JGB positions, as we explained here.

Liquidation is certainly the theme of the evening - investors are selling JGBs (6th day in a row of multiple-sigma moves in long-dated Japanese bonds 30Y +56bps off its post-BoJ lows at 1.60%!), selling Japanese stocks (Nikkei -128 pts, second biggest down day post-BoJ), selling US Treasuries (futures down), selling gold and silver (gold spot down over $100 from Friday's highs), and despite selling JPY early (retracing 30% of the weakness post-BoJ), JPY is practically unchanged (jerking lower only on the US futures open and Asian equity open) - it seems Mrs.Watanabe is struggling and unwinding some her excessively short JPY and long NKY positions. Read more >>

Source Says Asians to Squeeze Silver Shorts

A King World News contact out of London has confirmed that, “Massive Asian buying is going to squeeze the shorts in the silver market. Any reactions in the price of silver will be heavily purchased, and these buyers will take delivery of physical silver.” The source who wishes to remain anonymous agreed with Eric Sprott that this squeeze could take the price of silver to $50 in a matter of months.

I have recently been discussing a coming commercial signal failure with John Embry, James Turk and Eric Sprott. As previously mentioned, this is an extremely rare event but when it occurs it is a sight to behold. More...

John Embry Sees Hyperinflation If Fed Continues On QE Path, Expects Silver At $50

zerohedge.com

Veteran PM expert, Sprott's John Embry, whose observations on the lack of a bubble in precious metals we posted recently, and which came just before the CFTC's own disclosure that there may be extensive manipulation in the silver market, as well as a lawsuit filed against JPM and HSBC for silver price manipulation, shares his latest thoughts with Eric King in a traditionally contrarian insightful interview. In a nutshell, Embry is confident the current Fed policy will lead to hyperinflation, and that he would not be surprised if silver hit $50 within the next few months.

Full interview can be heard here.