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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;postalx, post: 600943, member: 18345&quot;]<b>:thumb: Silver poised for biggest monthly gain in 22 years&nbsp; :thumb:</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>By Moming Zhou </p><p>&nbsp;May 29, 2009 09:16:00 (ET)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Silver futures gained more than 2% Friday, heading for their biggest monthly gain in 22 years as inflation worries and hopes for an economic recovery boosted the metal. Gold rose to three-month highs as the dollar slipped.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Silver for July delivery, the most active contract, gained 33 cents, or 2.2%, to $15.49 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The front-month June contract stood at $15.42 an ounce. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Meanwhile, gold for June delivery rose $13.40, or 1.4%, to $974.90 an ounce. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Silver gained 25% this month, the biggest since April 1987. The metal has many industrial uses but is also seen as a hedge against a weaker dollar and inflation. In contrast, gold, which has limited industrial uses, has gained less than 10% in the month.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &quot;What you may now seeing is people think we are moving toward a recovery, and maybe we should be less pessimistic about the future of the metal, that may be factoring in the prices,&quot; said Jeffery Christian, managing director of New York-based precious metals consultancy CPM Group.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Silver, whose biggest single industrial use is in photography, is also used in medical applications and solar energy devices. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; But CPM&#039;s Christian also pointed out that silver had declined sharply in the second half of last year, when the global economy was entering into a sharp downturn. Its prices had fallen more than the price of gold.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &quot;Silver is playing catch-up to some extent,&quot; said Christian.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; The silver investment market is traditionally more volatile than gold, because the market is smaller comparing with the gold market. </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &quot;The gold market is more participated, involved more money, and more liquid, and it tends to see lower volatility,&quot; said Christian. &quot;In silver, you have few people with less money. It&#039;s a much more illiquid market and prices are always more volatile than gold.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; In exchange-traded fund, iShares Silver Trust ETF (<a href="https://us.etrade.com/e/t/invest/quotesandresearch?qmenu=2&amp;prod=SLV:US:EQ" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://us.etrade.com/e/t/invest/quotesandresearch?qmenu=2&amp;prod=SLV:US:EQ" rel="nofollow">SLV</a>, <a href="https://us.etrade.com/e/t/applogic/OrderForm?Symbol=SLV" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://us.etrade.com/e/t/applogic/OrderForm?Symbol=SLV" rel="nofollow">Trade</a> ) has gained 33% this year, following their 40% decline in the second half of last year.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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