Analys
Silver outlook to Q4 2021: A year for the hybrid metal
Nitesh Shah, Director, Research, WisdomTree, provides his 2021 outlook for silver, including the potential drivers of performance and the continued recovery of industrial demand.
“After a slow start, silver outpaced gold and most industrial metals in 2020. Initially riding gold’s defensive coattails and then getting a tailwind from its industrial traits, silver was an outperformer, gaining 47% in 2020. That compares to gold (24%), copper (27%) and nickel (21%). Silver’s hybrid status served it well in 2020 and we expect more of the same in 2021. As we articulated in Gold outlook to Q4 2021: at the crossroads of hope and fear, we start 2021 with the hope that COVID-19 vaccines will offer a route out of the malaise that the pandemic has wreaked on the health of the human population and the economies that we operate in. However, as has been abundantly clear in December 2020, the path to the recovery is likely to have many bumps along the road. Silver, playing both a defensive and cyclical role could do very well this year.
“Silver’s hybrid status has not gone unnoticed by investors. Silver held in exchange traded products (ETPs) rose to an all-time high in 2020 (Figure 1), and more remarkably at a pace never seen before. With 275mn ounces of silver added to silver exchange traded commodities in 2020, the year marks more than double the next highest year of silver ETP gains (2009 with 137mn ounces added). There was strong buying when silver was under-priced relative to gold in the first half of 2020. However, that buying slowed in the second half of the year as silver prices caught up with gold.
Framework
In “Gold and silver: similar, but different”, we argued that silver’s price performance is 80% correlated with gold. In our modelling framework, gold price is therefore the main driver of silver price. However, we also find the following variables as important drivers of silver price:
- Growth in manufacturing activity – more than 50% of silver’s use is in industrial applications (in contrast to gold where less than 10% comes from that sector). We use global manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) as a proxy for industrial demand
- Growth in silver inventory – rising inventories signal greater availability of the metal and hence is price negative. We use futures market exchange inventory as a proxy
- Growth in mining capital investment (capex) – the more mines invest, the more potential supply we will see in the future. Thus, we take an 18-month lag on this variable. Given that most silver comes as a by-product of mining for other metals, we look at mining capex across the top 100 miners (not just monoline silver miners).
Gold outlook Q4 2021: at the crossroads of hope and fear
In Gold outlook to Q4 2021: at the crossroads of hope and fear we laid out our forecasts under three scenarios.
- Consensus – based on consensus forecasts for all the macroeconomic inputs and an assumption that investor sentiment towards gold remains flat at where it is today.
- Continued economic uncertainty – further monetary intervention, possibly through yield curve control – limits Treasury yields and the US dollar continues to weaken, while investor sentiment towards gold strengthens.
- Hawkish Fed – despite having adjusted its inflation target, the Federal Reserve (Fed) behaves hawkish and Treasury yields rise substantially, the US dollar appreciates back to where it was in June 2020 and inflation remains way below target. As US dollar debasement fears recede, positioning in gold futures declines.
In our silver forecast, we focus on the ‘Continued economic uncertainty scenario’ where the gold price reaches US$2130/oz at the end of the forecast horizon.
Silver forecasts
“We believe in growth terms, silver could outpace gold, reaching US$34/oz in Q4 2021 (33.6% from today’s levels, versus 13.3% for gold. We explain the other drivers to this forecast below.
Industrial demand to continue to recover
“Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Indices (PMIs) have risen strongly in the past few months and are now in the expansionary post-50 region (Figure 3). Coming from a period of tight lockdowns, it’s unsurprising that the relative recovery from spring 2020 levels for the PMIs was strong as lockdown conditions eased. Renewed lockdowns could temporarily halt the improvement, but in general many businesses – with the support of a monetary and fiscal stimulus – will continue to see improvement. As with most historic recoveries, the pace of rebound is likely to slow in in the second half of the year. However, peaking at over 55, the PMIs indicate plenty of industrial demand for silver to be expected.
Mining supply could expand in 2021
“Our model approach uses the capital expenditure in mines as a proxy for future silver supply. While capital expenditure has declined in the past quarter (Figure 4), given the lag that we apply to this input, the rising capital expenditure we saw before that acts as a headwind for silver prices in our model approach.
“We know that earlier in 2020 many mines were unable to operate at full capacity due to social distancing and therefore silver mine production has been lower than it would have otherwise been. Figure 5 shows how much these COVID-19 related losses were estimated to be by Metals Focus. Assuming we don’t see lockdowns reintroduced in 2021, we are very likely to see mine production of silver rebound.
Silver exchange inventory rising again
“Silver inventory in Comex warehouses took a dip earlier in 2020 as sourcing metal became difficult under COVID-19 related operational hurdles (including flying metal from refiners in Europe, which became very difficult during lockdown). However, the supply of silver at the futures exchange was always plentiful and did not experience as sharp a dislocation from the over-the-counter spot bullion market as gold did. In recent months silver inventory on exchange has resumed its upward trajectory (Figure 6). We expect this trend to continue, adding some headwinds to silver price.
“We should note that there is a distinction between registered and eligible inventory. Eligible means the metal meets exchange’s requirements but has not been pledged as collateral against a futures market transaction. Registered means the metal meets requirements and has been pledged as collateral for futures market transactions. Eligible can easily be converted into registered, and that is why we look at the aggregate. However, most of the gains in recent years have come in the form of eligible rather than registered. That could simply be the choice of warehousing more in Comex warehouses rather than other warehouses. Nevertheless, the greater source of visible inventory has had a price dampening impact on silver. We expect rising inventory to continue to have this effect in the future.
Silver is not as cheap as it was in 2020
“After spiking to a modern-era high in Q1 2020, the gold-to-silver ratio is now sitting only slightly above its historic average since 1990 (Figure 7). In this regard silver is not as ‘cheap’ as it was in Q1 2020. We still expect silver outperformance over gold this year however, and our current forecasts (under the ‘continued economic uncertainty’ scenario) would put the gold-to-silver ratio at 63 at the end of 2021, just below the historic average of 68.
Conclusion
“Although silver faces some headwinds from potential supply increases, its correlation to gold should act as strong tailwind. Moreover, its hybrid status will allow it to benefit from a cyclical upswing, as we pass the ‘bumps in the road’ in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Silver has outperformed gold in 2020 and its historic high gold-beta may continue to see it outperform gold when gold is rising.”
Nitesh Shah, Director, Research, WisdomTree
Brent crude prices initially maintained the gains from late March and traded sideways during the first two trading days in April. Yesterday evening, the price even reached its highest point since mid-February, touching USD 75.5 per barrel.
However, after the U.S. president addressed the public and unveiled his new package of individual tariffs, the market reacted accordingly. Overnight, Brent crude dropped by close to USD 4 per barrel, now trading at USD 71.6 per barrel.
Key takeaways from the speech include a baseline tariff rate of 10% for all countries. Additionally, individual reciprocal tariffs will be imposed on countries with which the U.S. has the largest trade deficits. Many Asian economies end up at the higher end of the scale, with China facing a significant 54% tariff. In contrast, many North and South American countries are at the lower end, with a 10% tariff rate. The EU stands at 20%, which, while not unexpected given earlier signals, is still disappointing, especially after Trump’s previous suggestion that there might be some easing.
Once again, Trump has followed through on his promise, making it clear that he is serious about rebalancing the U.S. trade position with the world. While some negotiation may still occur, the primary objective is to achieve a more balanced trade environment. A weaker U.S. dollar is likely to be an integral part of this solution.
Yet, as the flow of physical goods to the U.S. declines, the natural question arises: where will these goods go? The EU may be forced to raise tariffs on China, mirroring U.S. actions to protect its industries from an influx of discounted Chinese goods.
Initially, we will observe the effects in soft economic data, such as sentiment indices reflecting investor, industry, and consumer confidence, followed by drops in equity markets and, very likely, declining oil prices. This will eventually be followed by more tangible data showing reductions in employment, spending, investments, and overall economic activity.
Ref oil prices moving forward, we have recently adjusted our Brent crude price forecast. The widespread imposition of strict tariffs is expected to foster fears of an economic slowdown, potentially reducing oil demand. Macroeconomic uncertainty, particularly regarding tariffs, warrants caution regarding the pace of demand growth. Our updated forecast of USD 70 per barrel for 2025 and 2026, and USD 75 per barrel for 2027, reflects a more conservative outlook, influenced by stronger-than-expected U.S. supply, a more politically influenced OPEC+, and an increased focus on fragile demand.
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US DOE data:
Last week, U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.6 million barrels per day, a decrease of 192 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Refineries operated at 86.0% of their total operable capacity during this period. Gasoline production increased slightly, averaging 9.3 million barrels per day, while distillate (diesel) production also rose, averaging 4.7 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.5 million barrels per day, up by 271 thousand barrels per day from the prior week. Over the past four weeks, imports averaged 5.9 million barrels per day, reflecting a 6.3% year-on-year decline compared to the same period last year.
The focus remains on U.S. crude and product inventories, which continue to impact short-term price dynamics in both WTI and Brent crude. Total commercial petroleum inventories (excl. SPR) increased by 5.4 million barrels, a modest build, yet insufficient to trigger significant price movements.
Commercial crude oil inventories (excl. SPR) rose by 6.2 million barrels, in line with the 6-million-barrel build forecasted by the API. With this latest increase, U.S. crude oil inventories now stand at 439.8 million barrels, which is 4% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels, exactly matching the API’s reported decline of 1.6 million barrels. Diesel inventories rose by 0.3 million barrels, which is close to the API’s forecast of an 11-thousand-barrel decrease. Diesel inventories are currently 6% below the five-year average.
Over the past four weeks, total products supplied, a proxy for U.S. demand, averaged 20.1 million barrels per day, a 1.2% decrease compared to the same period last year. Gasoline supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels per day, down 1.9% year-on-year. Diesel supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels per day, marking a 3.7% increase from the same period last year. Jet fuel demand also showed strength, rising 4.2% over the same four-week period.
Analys
Brent on a rollercoaster between bullish sanctions and bearish tariffs. Tariffs and demand side fears in focus today
Brent crude rallied to a high of USD 75.29/b yesterday, but wasn’t able to hold on to it and closed the day at USD 74.49/b. Brent crude has now crossed above both the 50- and 100-day moving average with the 200dma currently at USD 76.1/b. This morning it is trading a touch lower at USD 74.3/b
Brent riding a rollercoaster between bullish sanctions and bearish tariffs. Biden sanctions drove Brent to USD 82.63/b in mid-January. Trump tariffs then pulled it down to USD 68.33/b in early March with escalating concerns for oil demand growth and a sharp selloff in equities. New sanctions from Trump on Iran, Venezuela and threats of such also towards Russia then drove Brent crude back up to its recent high of USD 75.29/b. Brent is currently driving a rollercoaster between new demand damaging tariffs from Trump and new supply tightening sanctions towards oil producers (Iran, Venezuela, Russia) from Trump as well.
’Liberation day’ is today putting demand concerns in focus. Today we have ’Liberation day’ in the US with new, fresh tariffs to be released by Trump. We know it will be negative for trade, economic growth and thus oil demand growth. But we don’t know how bad it will be as the effects comes a little bit down the road. Especially bad if it turns into a global trade war escalating circus.
Focus today will naturally be on the negative side of demand. It will be hard for Brent to rally before we have the answer to what the extent these tariffs will be. Republicans lost the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin yesterday. So maybe the new Tariffs will be to the lighter side if Trump feels that he needs to tread a little bit more carefully.
OPEC+ controlling the oil market amid noise from tariffs and sanctions. In the background though sits OPEC+ with a huge surplus production capacity which it now will slice and dice out with gradual increases going forward. That is somehow drowning in the noise from sanctions and tariffs. But all in all, it is still OPEC+ who is setting the oil price these days.
US oil inventory data likely to show normal seasonal rise. Later today we’ll have US oil inventory data for last week. US API indicated last night that US crude and product stocks rose 4.4 mb last week. Close to the normal seasonal rise in week 13.
Higher last week and today as sanctions bite harder than recession fears. Brent crude gained 2% last week with a close on Friday of USD 73.63/b. It traded in a range of USD 71.8-74.17/b. It traded mostly higher through the week despite sharp, new selloffs in equities along with US consumer expectations falling to lowest level since 2013 (Consumer Conf. Board Expectations.) together with signals of new tariffs from the White House. Ahead this week looms the ”US Liberation Day” on April 2 when the White House will announce major changes in the country’s trade policy. Equity markets are down across the board this morning while Brent crude has traded higher and lower and is currently up 0.5% at USD 74.0/b at the moment.
New US sanctions towards Iran and Venezuela and threats of new sanctions towards Russia. New sanctions on Venezuela and Iran are helping to keep the market tight. Oil production in Venezuela reached 980 kb/d in February following a steady rise from 310 kb/d in mid-2020 while it used to produce 2.3 mb/d up to 2016. Trump last week allowed Chevron to import oil from Venezuela until 27 May. But he also said that any country taking oil or gas from Venezuela after 2 April will face 25% tariffs on any goods exported into the US. Trump is also threatening to sanction Russian oil further if Putin doesn’t move towards a peace solution with Ukraine.
The OPEC+ to meet on Saturday 5 April to decide whether to lift production in May or not. The OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee will meet on Saturday 5 April to review market conditions, compliance by the members versus their production targets and most importantly decide whether they shall increase production further in May following first production hike in April. We find it highly likely that they will continue to lift production also in May.
OPEC(+) crashed the oil price twice to curb US shale, but it kicked back quickly. OPEC(+) has twice crashed the oil price in an effort to hurt and disable booming US shale oil production. First in 2014/15/16 and then in the spring of 2020. The first later led to the creation of OPEC+ through the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) in the autumn of 2016. The second was in part driven by Covid-19 as well as a quarrel between Russia and Saudi Arabia over market strategy. But the fundamental reason for that quarrel and the crash in the oil price was US shale oil producers taking more and more market share.
The experience by OPEC+ through both of these two events was that US shale oil quickly kicked back even bigger and better yielding very little for OPEC+ to cheer about.
OPEC+ has harvested an elevated oil price but is left with a large spare capacity. The group has held back large production volumes since Spring 2020. It yielded the group USD 100/b in 2022 (with some help from the war in Ukraine), USD 81/b on average in 2023/24 and USD 75/b so far this year. The group is however left with a large spare capacity with little room to place it back into the market without crashing the price. It needs non-OPEC+ in general and US shale oil especially to yield room for it to re-enter.
A quick crash and painful blow to US shale oil is no longer the strategy. The strategy this time is clearly very different from the previous two times. It is no longer about trying to give US shale oil producers a quick, painful blow in the hope that the sector will stay down for an extended period. It is instead a lengthier process of finding the pain-point of US shale oil players (and other non-OPEC+ producers) through a gradual increase in production by OPEC+ and a gradual decline in the oil price down to the point where non-OPEC+ in general and US liquids production especially will gradually tick lower and yield room to the reentry of OPEC+ spare capacity. It does not look like a plan for a crash and a rush, but instead a tedious process where OPEC+ will gradually force its volumes back into the market.
Where is the price pain-point for US shale oil players? The Brent crude oil price dropped from USD 84/b over the year to September last year to USD 74/b on average since 1 September. The values for US WTI were USD 79/b and USD 71/b respectively. A drop of USD 9/b for both crudes. There has however been no visible reaction in the US drilling rig count following the USD 9/b fall. The US drilling rig count has stayed unchanged at around 480 rigs since mid-2024 with the latest count at 484 operating rigs. While US liquids production growth is slowing, it is still set to grow by 580 kb/d in 2025 and 445 kb/d in 2026 (US EIA).
US shale oil average cost-break-even at sub USD 50/b (BNEF). Industry says it is USD 65/b. BNEF last autumn estimated that all US shale oil production fields had a cost-break-even below USD 60/b with a volume weighted average just below USD 50/b while conventional US onshore oil had a break-even of USD 65/b. A recent US Dallas Fed report which surveyed US oil producers did however yield a response that the US oil industry on average needed USD 65/b to break even. That is more than USD 15/b higher than the volume weighted average of the BNEF estimates.
The WTI 13-to-24-month strip is at USD 64/b. Probably the part of the curve controlling activity. As such it needs to move lower to curb US shale oil activity. The WTI price is currently at USD 69.7/b. But the US shale oil industry today works on a ”12-month drilling first, then fracking after” production cycle. When it considers whether to drill more or less or not, it is typically on a deferred 12-month forward price basis. The average WTI price for months 13 to 24 is today USD 64/b. The price signal from this part of the curve is thus already down at the pain-point highlighted by the US shale oil industry. In order to yield zero growth and possibly contraction in US shale oil production, this part of the curve needs to move below that point.
The real pain-point is where we’ll see US drilling rig count starting to decline. We still don’t know whether the actual average pain-point is around USD 50/b as BNEF estimate it is or whether it is closer to USD 65/b which the US shale oil bosses say it is. The actual pain-point is where we’ll see further decline in US drilling rig count. And there has been no visible change in the rig count since mid-2024. The WTI 13-to-24-month prices need to fall further to reveal where the US shale oil industry’ actual pain-point is. And then a little bit more in order to slow production growth further and likely into some decline to make room for reactivation of OPEC+ spare capacity.
The WTI forward price curve. The average of 13 to 24 month is now USD 64.3/b.
The average 13-to-24-month prices on the WTI price curve going back to primo January 2022. Recently dropping below USD 65/b for some extended period.
Tariffs deepen economic concerns – significantly weighing on crude oil prices
Brent on a rollercoaster between bullish sanctions and bearish tariffs. Tariffs and demand side fears in focus today
Våren präglas av svängigt elpris och ankkurva
Guld kostar över 3100 USD per uns och 1 miljoner kronor per kilo
Oil gains as sanctions bite harder than recession fears
USA är världens största importör av aluminium
Oversold. Rising 1-3mth time-spreads. Possibly rebounding to USD 73.5/b before downside ensues
Crude oil comment: Unable to rebound as the US SPX is signaling dark clouds on the horizon
Crude oil comment: Not so fragile yet. If it was it would have sold off more yesterday
Priset på koppar skiljer sig åt efter tariffer
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Nyheter3 veckor sedanUSA är världens största importör av aluminium
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Analys4 veckor sedan
Oversold. Rising 1-3mth time-spreads. Possibly rebounding to USD 73.5/b before downside ensues
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Analys3 veckor sedan
Crude oil comment: Unable to rebound as the US SPX is signaling dark clouds on the horizon
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Analys3 veckor sedan
Crude oil comment: Not so fragile yet. If it was it would have sold off more yesterday
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Nyheter2 veckor sedanPriset på koppar skiljer sig åt efter tariffer
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Analys2 veckor sedan
Oil prices climb, but fundamentals will keep rallies in check
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Analys1 vecka sedan
Crude oil comment: Ticking higher as tariff-panic eases. Demand growth and OPEC+ will be key
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Nyheter2 veckor sedanPå 15 år eldar Kina lika mycket kol som USA gjort under hela sin historia