Silver Price Forecast: XAG/USD forming a bullish-harami as bulls target $23.00

• Silver is flat after reaching a week of losses, though as the New York session end approaches, silver is flat.
• The US 10-year T-bond yield is flat at 1.777%, despite Fed policymakers piling to raise rates in March.
• XAG/USD Technical Outlook: Downward biased, but upside risks remain, as shown by the bullish harami.

Silver (XAG/USD) grinds higher during the North American session, trading at $22.48 at the time of writing. The market sentiment remains upbeat, with US equity markets trading in the green, while the US dollar remains under heavy downward pressure. The US Dollar Index, a measurement of the greenback’s versus a basket of six rivals, drops near 0.70% sits at 96.61.

Meanwhile, the US 10-year Treasury yield, which when It raises weighs on non-yielding assets, is flat at 1.777%.

Regional Federal Reserve Presidents favor rate hikes

An absent US economic docket kept precious metals investors glued to their screen as Fed speakers crossed the wires. Over the weekend, Atlanta’s Fed President Raphael Bostic (voter 2024) said that he foresees three rate hikes by the end of 2022 and would not discount a 50 basis points increase to the Federal Funds Rate (FFR).

On Monday, earlier in the day, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly  (voter 2024) said that “inflation is too high” and added that the US central bank is “not behind the curve at all.” Worth noting that if the FFR ends at 1.25% in 2022, Daly said that “that is quite a bit of tightening, but still supporting the economy.”

An hour later, Kansas City Fed President Esther George (voter 2022), who leaned to the hawkish tilt in the FOMC board,  noted that the risks of a “large” balance sheet should not be ignored. Furthermore, She said it could be “appropriate to move earlier on the balance sheet relative to the Fed’s last tightening cycle.” Worth noting that a steep path for rate hikes coupled with “modest” reductions of the balance sheet could lead to more financial risk.

The US economic docket will feature the JOLTS Openings report for December on Tuesday. That, alongside the ISM Manufacturing Prices and the Dallas Fed Index for January, could give XAG/USD traders some cues about the US Dollar.

XAG/USD Price Forecast: Technical outlook

From a technical perspective, XAG/USD is downward biased. Nevertheless, the last couple of trading sessions failed to break below a one month-upslope trendline, which provided support, around $22-3545 region.

To the upside, the first resistance would be the 50-day moving average (DMA) at $22.91. A breach of the latter would expose the 100-DMA at $23.22. A break above it would open the door for a January 3 daily high test at $23.40.