UNITED STATES January 18 2016 4:43 PM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): United States silver scrap prices dropped on Friday, while silver futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange settled higher as a batch of soft U.S. economic data and further signals of weakness in China sent investors scurrying toward the safe-haven asset.

The major silver scrap commodities on the Scrap Register Price Index traded down on Friday. The hallmarked silver scrap prices declined to $11.361 an ounce and non-hallmarked silver scrap prices dropped to $10.084 an ounce.

The most active March silver contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled higher by 14.8 cents to $13.896 an ounce on Friday.

Silver futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange settled higher as investors kept a close eye on developments in China, where economic growth last year is projected to slow at the slowest rate in a quarter-century.