Silver: poor man's gold no more?

Gold last traded at $2,025 an ounce. Silver at $26.13 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metals rallied Tuesday, with gold prices cresting $2,000/oz and silver rushing past $25/oz., on bullish momentum and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks rose modestly as lawmakers try to come to a bipartisan agreement on a new coronavirus stimulus package.

Saefong/Marketwatch---"Investors have focused on a rise in record prices for gold, but silver's up about 25% in July - the metal's second-biggest monthly gain on record - and it's still undervalued compared with the yellow metal. 'Silver is often called the 'poor man's gold' because some of the same factors that cause gold prices to rise do the same thing to silver prices,' says Ed Moy, chief market strategist at gold retailer Valaurum. 'And what is driving gold prices now are mainly the fear of inflation due to the magnitude of the monetary and fiscal stimulus worldwide, and the flight to safety due to the uncertainty around how and when the global economy will recover.' Silver, however, is 'cheaper per ounce' than gold, and its prices are much more volatile, he says. It has also been 'lagging behind gold's rise' and the ratio of the number of ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold is historically high...If silver is underpriced, 'there is a lot of money to be made,' says Moy, who was director of the U.S. Mint from 2006 to 2011....'Silver is not even halfway to its all-time high,' says Ryan Giannotto, director of research at exchange-traded-fund-issuer GraniteShares. While it's unlikely silver would more than double in the immediate future, it's 'unwise to rule out extreme scenarios.' It takes more than 80 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold. Though the ratio has seen a significant decline in recent months, it's still well above the typical gold-to-silver ratio, which Moy pegs at one ounce of gold to 60 ounces of silver....Ross Norman, CEO of precious-metals news and information provider Metals Daily, says the ratio between the metals rose to a 4,000-year high at 126 on March 18. 'It has been clear for some time that silver was excessively cheap compared to gold,' he says. The ratio is still historically high, 'suggesting there is scope for greater gains in silver still.'....For most individual investors, government-made silver bullion coins are an attractive way to invest, he says, and governments guarantee the weight, content, and purity of each coin."