Silver is punishing investors amid diminishing trust in precious metals as a store of wealth and concern that growth is weakening, with $5.2 billion erased from the value of their near-record holdings this year.
Ben S. Bernanke, the world’s most- powerful central banker, says he doesn’t understand gold prices. If his peers had paid attention, they might have stopped expanding reserves that lost $545 billion in value since bullion peaked in 2011.
Palladium rose to the highest since August 2011 after mining companies and the main labor union failed to resolve a strike in South Africa.