The price of silver's rise from its mid-December ashes has been nothing short of spectacular.
Thanks to that rally, the silver price finished 2017 ahead 6.7%. If you consider its 2016 gain of 14.3%, then silver appears to be joining gold in its return to secular bull market action.
More recently, in just the past two-and-a-half weeks, the price of silver has soared an impressive 8.3%.
This ended a year that challenged silver bulls' patience, but those with the fortitude to hang in have been handsomely rewarded.
Ever since silver started correcting from over $18 in early September, the $17.50 level has acted as overhead resistance.
On Jan. 2, silver busted through the $17 level and appears intent on remaining above it.
Given how easily the $16 and $17 psychological thresholds were taken out, I'm expecting more bullish action in this seasonally strong time of year...
How the Price of Silver Is Trending in 2018
On Wednesday, Dec. 27, a small relief rally for the U.S. dollar pulled the DXY slightly higher in the afternoon. So silver sold off slightly and closed at $16.66. Still, the metal managed to gain $0.11 per ounce in New York trading.
Urgent: Executive Editor Bill Patalon just saw something on his precious metals charts he's only seen twice in 20 years. He calls it the "Halley's Comet of investing" - and it could lead to windfall profits. Read more...
Thursday, Dec. 28, would see continued strength. At 8:00 a.m., the DXY was at 92.72 and closed at 92.64. That helped fuel silver gains, taking the metal from $16.69 at 8:00 a.m. to end the day at $16.84.
Here are the DXY's moves over the past five trading days:
On the last trading day of 2017, silver made a valiant move higher to touch $17.03. But that was only on an intraday basis around 1:00 p.m. after starting out at $16.82. It's little wonder, as the DXY opened lower at 92.28 and sank to 92.11 at 12:45 p.m., which was when silver spiked above $17. But a relief rally in the dollar pulled the DXY back up to 92.3 by 4:00 p.m., and silver ended at $16.91.
The next full trading day was Tuesday, Jan. 2. Already, in late Monday evening trading, silver prices were higher. Then on Tuesday, they opened at $17.06 and climbed steadily to $17.16 by late afternoon as the DXY was trading down near 91.80.
Now that we know how silver prices are trending now, here's how high I see the precious metal heading in 2018...[mmpazkzone name="in-story" network="9794" site="307044" id="137008" type="4"]
Here's My New Silver Price Target for 2018
Let's look at silver's recent rally like we did gold's - in candlestick format, in order to appreciate just how relentless it's been.
Since Dec. 12, silver futures have had just two down days.
And looking at recent silver action, we see that the current rally has once again pulled the price back up towards the $17.40 to $17.50 level.
This range was overhead resistance during much of October and November after silver prices corrected back in early September.
We're quickly approaching that level once again, and I think this time will be the charm. As for gold, notice too that this silver futures buying has happened on lower-than-average volume, suggesting silver's still climbing a wall of worry, leaving doubters behind.
The 50-day and 200-day moving averages have flattened out since trending downward from early November, and the RSI and MACD momentum indicators are confirming the bullish price action.
A rest for silver would come as no surprise right now, since the gains of the past three weeks have been unyielding. But seasonal strength coupled with a weakening dollar and bullish momentum is likely to push silver higher.
I think we could see a run to $18.25 by late February, and as high as $20.50 by mid-2018.
Up Next: Rare Gold Anomaly
Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon just caught something on his gold charts that he's only seen twice in the past 20 years. A $13 billion gold anomaly he calls the "Halley's Comet of investing."
It's very rare, and fleeting, and Bill sees things lining up perfectly to bring some very sizeable precious metal profits to well-positioned investors.
Click here to check out his research...
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