After hitting their highest close in the last four weeks the previous Friday, live silver prices pulled back in afterhours trading over the weekend to open Monday at $17.00. The metal stayed in lockstep with gold and the rest of the precious complex to a low for the week at 11:00 am of $16.96, but the jitters in the market settled enough to push the price of silver back up to $16.98 by the close. Tuesday opened back up above the psychological barrier of $17.00 at $17.02, but slipped again during the day’s trading to close at $16.96. In spite of the short trading week caused by the Thanksgiving holiday, Wednesday morning saw the return of the bulls, with a strong open at $17.11 that translated into a solid close at $17.10. Markets in the U.S. were closed on Thursday, and after opening at $17.07 on Friday, silver prices closed the week out at $17.05 after the half day of trading for the holiday.

Equity markets stumbled and precious metals rose in the early part of the week after the Trump administration announced that it had returned North Korea to the list of countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism. The move reversed policies in place since 2006, when President Bush removed the country from the list as an olive branch to encourage negotiations on North Korea’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. 1 It also comes after a series of heated exchanges between the U.S. and North Korea over the latter country’s nuclear activity that sent gold prices skyrocketing last summer.

The announcement that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intends to end “net neutrality,” or the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally by internet providers, sowed confusion and uncertainty among tech investors, as pundits debated the likely effects of the change. 2