Neils Christensen

  Friday February 24, 2017 15:09

(Kitco News) - This weekend the Kitco News team kicks the tires and lights the fires as we commence our 2017 conference coverage with the prestigious BMO 26th annual Metals & Mining Conference.

Starting Sunday, Kitco News’ Daniela Cambone heads to Florida to interview some of the top market analysts, experts and mining executives in the industry to get their take on the sector. 

After that, the team heads to Toronto for the biggest mining convention in North America: the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference. You don’t want to miss our coverage in the next two weeks!

Okay enough with the plugs... let's get to the news because it was a big week for gold and silver. Both precious metals are gaining a lot of attention again with gold ending its fourth consecutive week in the green, up more than 9% since the start of the year; however, the show stopper has really been silver, which is up for its 9th straight week (+12%). 

With the markets seeing no major commitment from the Federal Reserve to raise rates in March -- with the minutes showing the committee seeing the next rate hike as “fairly soon “ -- analysts expect gold and silver to continue to move higher in the near-term as the U.S. dollar loses steam.

One of the reasons analysts are bullish on gold and silver is that there is still a lot of investor capital sitting on the sidelines. Compared to last year, hedge funds have been slow to move into gold, which means there are a lot more potential buyers out there, according to some analysts.

But, there is one fund manager, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, who remains bullish on gold. Einhorn said in an earnings conference call Thursday, that he likes gold as a hedge against political uncertainty and rising inflation risks.

Of course everyone loves gold, or thinks that these gains will last. This week, Kitco’s Sarah Benali talked to John Baffes, economist at the World Bank, who said that he is sticking to his earlier forecast for gold to fall 8% this year.

In other news...Kitco News launches KITCO CHAT! Readers can now leave comments on all our articles. It's an easy way to connect with the Kitco News team as well as others in the precious metals community! Check it out - you can choose to create a username or not, but if you do want your unique tag, be sure to do it soon before someone else snags it! We hope you enjoy the new look and features.