FSM - Why Fortuna Silver Endeavour Silver and Americas Gold and Silver All Jumped 10% or More on July 20
Shares of precious metals miner Americas Gold and Silver (NYSEMKT: USAS) rose as much as 13% on July 20. It was followed closely by Endeavour Silver (NYSE: EXK), which advanced just under 13% at its peak, and Fortuna Silver (NYSE: FSM), which was up roughly 10%. At 2:30 p.m. EST all three were still higher by between 10% and 13%. There was no material news out of any of the companies, but there was some notable news on the silver front.
Silver has lagged behind gold's performance in recent years, leading many miners to shift more toward the yellow metal while downplaying their silver efforts. The reason for this is found in the gold-silver ratio, which tells you how much silver it takes to buy an ounce of gold. The number is currently around 90, but over time it has averaged something closer to 50, with the current 20-year average hovering around 65. Essentially, silver has generally lagged behind gold in recent years, widening the gold-silver ratio gap and making it more profitable for miners to dig for the so-called barbarous metal.
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