Silver Price Analysis: XAG/USD fails to hold above $24.00, remains supported amid elevated geopolitical angst

• Spot silver failed to hold above resistance at $24.00 on Friday but continues to trade with an upside bias.
• Geopolitical tensions as violence in Eastern Ukraine picks up are keeping precious metals in demand.

Though they had a decent go at it, its looks as though spot silver (XAG/USD) prices are not going to be able to end the week above resistance in the form of the $24.00 per troy ounce level. Having reached as high as $24.09 (multi-week highs) earlier in the session, prices have since dipped back to around $23.90, where they continue to trade with on-the-day gains of about 0.3%. Levels of geopolitical angst remain high as violence escalates between pro-Russia separatist forces and Ukraine’s military in the country’s Eastern Donbas region and Russia continues to amass troops near the Ukrainian border. Evacuations of civilians in separatist-held areas of Donbas into Russia further added to the nerves, as evacuations could be seen as part of separatist force preparations for a greater escalation of violence.

The upshot is that precious metals like silver remain very much in demand. This is likely to remain the case as focus shifts to a face-to-face meeting between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov next week that may defuse tensions somewhat. For now, XAG/USD bulls will be hoping for a more convincing push above resistance around $24.00 which would open the door a run towards resistance in the $24.50 area. For now, Fed speak and US data isn’t having as much of an impact with markets instead focused on the geopolitics. But traders should continue to assess how upcoming Fed speak/data impacts Fed tightening expectations as this could impact silver.