Silver futures fall to 12-day low on Fed taper concerns

            Silver prices traded at the lowest level in more than two weeks on Monday, as renewed uncertainty over when the U.S. Federal Reserve will scale back its stimulus measures weighed on sentiment.

Prices of the precious metal have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the Fed would start tapering its USD85-billion-a-month asset-purchase program by the end of the year.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, silver futures for December delivery traded at USD21.70 a troy ounce during European morning trade, down 0.6%. 

Silver prices fell to a session low of USD21.61 a troy ounce earlier, the weakest level since October 17.

The December contract ended 0.14% lower on Friday to settle at USD21.83 a troy ounce.

Futures were likely to find support at USD21.10 a troy ounce, the low from October 17 and resistance at USD22.62, the high from October 31.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said earlier that the Fed should scale back its stimulus measures as soon as possible.

Speaking at a conference in Sydney on Monday, Fisher said a "fiscally irresponsible" U.S. government counteracted the effects of accommodative Fed policy. 

He also added that he did not expect the central bank's USD85-billion-a-month bond-buying program to increase or go on indefinitely.

“At the earliest possible moment we need to focus on transitioning back to having an interest-rate-driven monetary policy,” Fisher said.

Market players now looked ahead to the release of key U.S. economic data later in the week to help assess the timing for a reduction in the Fed’s bond-purchasing program.

The U.S. is set to release preliminary data on third quarter economic growth on Thursday, while October’s highly-anticipated nonfarm payrolls report is scheduled for Friday.

The central bank sounded more optimistic than anticipated in its assessment of the economy following its policy-setting meeting last week, sparking speculation the Fed could start tapering stimulus at its December meeting.

Silver traders have closely been looking out for U.S. data reports recently to gauge if they will strengthen or weaken the case for the Fed to reduce its bond purchases.

Elsewhere on the Comex, gold for December delivery inched up 0.1% to trade at USD1,314.50 a troy ounce, while copper for December shed 0.65% to trade at USD3.277 a pound.  - Investing.com