Silver Price Analysis: XAG/USD tumbles to eight-week lows, worst week since October

US Dollar soars across the board after NFP.
US ISM Service brings in more favourable data.
Silver drops by more than 3% on Friday; down 8% from Thursday’s peak.

Matías Salord FXStreet

Metals extended the sell-off after the US official employment report. Silver hits fresh monthly lows near $22.50 and is having the worst day in months.

Strong labor market, Service sector expanding again

US economic data released on Friday came in above expectations, reflecting a strong labor market and an improvement in service sector activity. The numbers boosted the US Dollar and Treasury bond yields. Wall Street is moving without a clear direction.

The data published on Friday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that Nonfarm Payrolls rose by 517K in January, significantly above the market expectation of 185K. November and December’s figures were revised higher. The unemployment rate dropped unexpectable to 3.4%.

A different report released more recently revealed that economic activity in the service sector turned into expansion territory in January with the ISM Service PMI rising from 49.2 in December to 55.2, surpassing the market expectations of 50.4. In addition, the Price Paid Index dropped modestly from 68.1 to 67.8, above consensus of 65.5.

Silver hit a fresh low after the ISM data at $22.47, the lowest since December 7. As the end of the week looms, XAG/USD attempts to trim losses and trades at $22.65, down 3.40% for the day. From Thursday’s high it has fallen 8%.

Technical added pressure to XAG/USD and suggest at the moment that more losses are likely. Price is breaking a one-and-a-half consolidation range to the downside, after being rejected again from above $24.00.

Interim support emerges around $22.50, and below is the strong barrier at around $22.00. A recovery back above $23.00 could alleviate the bearish pressure.

XAG/USD daily chart

Technical levels

XAG/USD

Overview
Today last price	22.61
Today Daily Change	-0.85
Today Daily Change %	-3.62
Today daily open	23.46

Trends
Daily SMA20	23.76
Daily SMA50	23.41
Daily SMA100	21.66
Daily SMA200	21.02

Levels
Previous Daily High	24.64
Previous Daily Low	23.42
Previous Weekly High	24.3
Previous Weekly Low	22.76
Previous Monthly High	24.55
Previous Monthly Low	22.76
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	23.89
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	24.17
Daily Pivot Point S1	23.04
Daily Pivot Point S2	22.63
Daily Pivot Point S3	21.83
Daily Pivot Point R1	24.26
Daily Pivot Point R2	25.06
Daily Pivot Point R3	25.47

Author

Matías Salord

FXStreet

Matías started in financial markets in 2008, after graduating in Economics. He was trained in chart analysis and then became an educator. He also studied Journalism. He started writing analyses for specialized websites before joining FXStreet.

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