Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF

SLVR

Market cap $760M

If you owned Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF (NASDAQ:SLVR) into the close on Friday, you watched a $10,000 position turn into roughly $8,815 in a single session.

The global push, particularly in Western nations, towards advanced technology in the defense sector is amplifying the realization that critical supply chains run through China. For defense strategists, this reliance becomes a roadblock on the path to critical mineral independence.

In September 2020, JP Morgan paid a landmark $920 million settlement to resolve charges of “spoofing” – placing and cancelling fake buy or sell orders – to manipulate the silver market.

While gold has proved to be a hot commodity for the last few months, some naysayers have looked at March's short-term volatility as a reason to stay away from the precious metal for now.

In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion about the importance of amplifying the domestic production and supply chains for rare earths in the United States. Given that China maintains a significant hold over the global market, the U.S. looking to increase its own rare earths presence makes a good deal of sense.

Key Takeaways While energy investments of all kinds have struggled amid conflict in the Middle East, uranium might offer a compelling long-term opportunity. Sprott Asset Management CEO John Ciampaglia noted that uranium's fundamentals remain sound, and that it remains far harder to substitute or replace than other metals investors tend to allocate towards.

Silver is entering its sixth consecutive year of a structural supply deficit, as global production fails to keep pace with the massive demand required for the clean energy transition and AI infrastructure.

Silver's dazzling rally over the last few months has led to the precious metal being an asset to watch for investors of all sizes.

Despite falling below $5,000 recently, it could be an opportune time to strike and purchase the dip in gold prices. Fundamental demand drivers could continue to push the precious metal higher through the rest of the year.

Silver's historic rally has certainly garnered plenty of attention from advisers and investors, but some may be wondering how much longer the silver bulls will run.  Considering how many new record highs silver has hit during this rally, this is certainly a fair question to ponder.