Price of Silver Hits Two Year High!

Commodity investors can delight today as jewelry designers, silversmiths, crafters, wholesalers, retailers, and jewelry buyers will all feel the sting of silver's recent high.  This morning CNBC reported that silver is now back to a whopping $20 per ounce.  Changes like this can slow down silver jewelry sales forcing artisans and retailers (especially small businesses who haven't pre-bought very large quantities) to yield much lower profits.  The silver market has been a roller coaster over the past two years.  If you are a jewelry crafter, you may have noticed that an earring finding that costs $1 one day may cost $3 the next.  This winter offered some reprieve when silver went down to less than $15 an ounce, but today silver has gone back up reaching a two year high.   In order to make up for this hit, designers will need to work extremely hard to come up with creative solutions to keep their business going as jewelry buyers aren't always aware, willing, or capable of bearing the price of (justified) price increases.  Now I'd start giving stock advice here if I didn't fear the legal reprucussions (disclaimers take a long time to revise and lawyers are pricy)...so in the mean time, designers hang in there!  How high can it go?  Will it go back down?  These things (depending on who you ask) are nearly impossible to predict, but fun fact: Silver reached an all time high of $50/ounce in 1980. OUCH!