CPM Silver Yearbook 2007
by Allen Sykora,
DowJones Newswire
Date: May 15, 2007
Investors became net buyers of silver in 2006 for the first time since 1990, and this trend is expected to continue in 2007, according to the Silver Yearbook 2007 released Monday by the CPM Group….
CPM Group is a commodities market research, consulting, asset management and investment firm that produces widely followed annual reports on gold, silver and platinum group metals….
"In 2006, the market balance shifted from investors being net sellers to their purchasing around 60.5 million ounces of silver on a net basis," said the summary. The Silver Yearbook estimates that net investor buying of silver will total at least 74.1 million ounces in 2007.
"Investors are buying silver for a variety of reasons," the summary said. "Mostly, they see silver, like gold, as an attractive alternative investment to stocks, bonds, and currencies at a time when the returns of these other investment asset classes are less promising, and the risks inherent in them appear to have increased. Investors also are buying silver as a hedge against inflation, against war and other political dislocations, and as a commodity."...
"The significance of the shift in the silver market from net investor selling to net investor buying cannot be over-emphasized," said the report summary. "This is the third time such a shift in investors' role in the silver market has occurred in modern times."
CPM Group said the first was in the early 1960s, when strong fabrication and investment demand compelled the U.S. Treasury to stop producing silver circulating coinage and silver certificates, and to sell hundreds of millions of ounces of silver the Treasury had acquired over the previous seven decades. The second time investors shifted to net buyers was in 1979, when silver prices rose from a low of $5.92 to $34.45 at the end of the year on the way to a peak
of $48.70 in January 1980...
The above information has been redacted from the article as it originally appeared on Dow Jones Newswires on May15, 2007.
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