Silver fell a very sharp 85 cents from $18.40 per ounce to as low as $17.65 per ounce yesterday for a 4.25% price fall soon after the London bullion markets closed yesterday despite no market news or corresponding sharp moves in other markets.

Silver had surged 15% in the first two months and had seen ten consecutive weeks of gradual gains. It had made convincing closes above the psychological $18 an ounce level and the 200 day moving average (DMA) at 18.155 and made 3-month highs only yesterday.

Silver Prices (LBMA)

03 Mar: USD 17.66, GBP 14.44 & EUR 16.76 per ounce
02 Mar: USD 18.33, GBP 14.93 & EUR 17.42 per ounce
01 Mar: USD 18.33, GBP 14.89 & EUR 17.40 per ounce
28 Feb: USD 18.28, GBP 14.70 & EUR 17.24 per ounce
27 Feb: USD 18.34, GBP 14.77 & EUR 17.33 per ounce
24 Feb: USD 18.27, GBP 14.56 & EUR 17.23 per ounce
23 Feb: USD 18.00, GBP 14.42 & EUR 17.06 per ounce

Silver investors were gaining confidence and dealers were experiencing robust demand for silver coins and bars. Suddenly at almost exactly 1630 GMT yesterday as European markets were closing, some entity decided to dump $2 billion worth of silver contracts into the futures market in minutes. A huge 23,000 silver contracts which is the equivalent of 1.15 million ounces of silver was dumped on the market:

Source: Zero Hedge

“Over 23,000 Silver futures contracts suddenly puked into the market as soon as Europe closed…” as noted by Zero Hedge.

Silver quickly fell over 4% and gave up much of the gains of the last month. Gold fell $14.90 or 1.2% to $1235.00.

Rate hike expectations and the risks of a rate hike on March 15 are being attributed for the sharp silver price fall.

However, one would have thought that this was already priced into the market and therefore why the sudden 4% fall in minutes yesterday. It was unusual as there was no breaking news, no bearish silver or gold related news and indeed no important news or announcements from the Federal Reserve.

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