Silver Price Analysis: XAG/USD bulls retain control near two-week high, around mid-$30.00s

• Silver is seen consolidating its recent gains to a two-week top touched on Wednesday.
• The technical setup favors bullish traders and supports prospects for a further move up.
• Dips towards the $30.00 mark might be seen as a buying opportunity and remain limited.

Silver (XAG/USD) extends its sideways consolidative price move during the Asian session on Friday and currently trades near the $30.50 area, or its highest level since June 21 touched earlier this week. Nevertheless, the white metal remains on track to register strong weekly gains as traders keenly await the release of the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report before placing fresh directional bets. 

From a technical perspective, the recent goodish rebound from levels below the $28.80-$28.70 horizontal resistance breakpoint-turned-support and the subsequent move beyond the $30.00 psychological mark favors bullish traders. Moreover, the XAG/USD is holding comfortably above the key daily moving averages - 50-day, 100-day and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMA). This, along with the fact that oscillators on the daily chart have just started gaining positive traction, suggests that the path of least resistance for the metal is to the upside. 

Some follow-through buying beyond the weekly top, around the $30.70 region touched on Wednesday, will reaffirm the positive bias and lift the XAG/USD beyond the $31.00 mark, towards the next relevant hurdle near the $31.50-$31.55 area. The upward trajectory could extend further and allow bulls to reclaim the $32.00 round figure before aiming to challenge the $32.50 region, or over a one-decade peak touched in May.

On the flip side, any meaningful corrective slide is more likely to attract fresh buyers near the $30.00 round figure. This should help limit the downside for the XAG/USD near the $29.75-$29.70 resistance-turned-support. The latter should act as a pivotal point, which if broken decisively might prompt some technical selling and accelerate the fall towards the $29.10-$29.00 region. Some follow-through selling below the $28.80-$28.70 key support zone will negate the constructive outlook and shift the near-term bias in favor of bearish traders.

Silver daily chart