UNITED STATES November 29 2016 6:12 PM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): United States silver scrap prices climbed on Monday, while silver futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange settled higher as the dollar and long-dated U.S. Treasury bond yields retreated from recent highs. 

U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers appeared confident on the eve of the presidential election that the economy was strengthening enough to warrant an interest rate rise, minutes from the Fed's early November meeting showed.

The major silver scrap commodities on the Scrap Register Price Index traded higher on Monday. The hallmarked silver scrap prices gained by 1.305% to $13.732 an ounce and non-hallmarked silver scrap prices advanced to $12.189 an ounce. 

The most active March silver contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange up by 12.1 cents to end at $16.675 an ounce on Monday. 

Last week, silver pushed into a bear market. Silver prices have been clobbered into bear-market territory, courtesy of a strengthening dollar and rising bond yields, and the near-term picture looks dull for the metal.