By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, but investor focus was on silver as the precious metal soared up to a nearly six-month high of 7.4%.
Gold futures gained 0.69% at $1,863.10 by 12:05 AM ET (5:05 AM GMT).
The silver surge was driven by posts on the Reddit platform urging retail investors to buy silver mining stocks and iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV), an exchange traded fund (ETF) backed by physical silver bars, in a squeeze like that seen in GameStop (NYSE:GME) shares during the previous week. The squeeze saw silver climb nearly 15% since Thursday, as investors flooded the market and pushed up silver prices.
The gold/silver ratio, measuring the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold, fell to its lowest level since 2014. Data released on Friday also showed that speculators increased their bullish positions in COMEX gold and silver contracts in the week to Jan. 26.
On the stimulus front, a group of moderate Republican lawmakers urged for U.S. President Joe Biden to cut the $1.9 trillion price tag on his proposed COVID-19 stimulus package.
The group of ten senators, including Susan Collins Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney, requested a meeting with Biden to discuss a compromise plan which could garner bipartisan support and be passed more quickly. More details are due to be released later in the day.