I'm not an economist and I'm not an expert on trading in precious metals on the commodity market. But I do buy and sell sterling silver pieces so I watch external market forces that impact my business.
A general rule I believe in is that as the rate of inflation grows, the price of precious metals may rise as buyers try to develop a hedge against inflation. Right now in Europe, central bankers and economists are worried about deflation. Even though the United States is in a different financial position from Europe, it is affected by world events.
So, to my way of thinking, prices for precious metals will not rise significantly as long as deflation is a worry. Of course, some significant world event like a war could change things but if that does not happen, the world price of silver might be stagnant for a while.
Prices of precious metals did bump up a bit this morning in response to actions taken by European central bankers but similar actions in the recent past have not had a huge impact. So, the silver market may just drift sideways more or less until this situation sorts itself out through natural market mechanisms.
Here are good summaries of current events related to this topic:
NOTE: This is the text of an article I wrote for Examiner.com that might be useful to blog readers.