The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is monitoring unusual trading activity in the U.S. silver market, according to a spokesman for the federal oversight agency.
The commission intensifies its surveillance efforts when unusual events or activity occur, as has happened in silver recently, he said Tuesday.
Silver prices jumped 25 percent in the last two months of 1997, reaching a nine-year high on Dec. 24, as strong demand pushed supplies in futures exchange warehouses to a 12-year low.
While some traders attributed the demand to filmmakers and jewelry manufacturers, others connected it to speculators, who built up private holdings of the metal in anticipation of rising prices.
In mid-October, Merrill Lynch warned that a syndicate controlled a large amount of silver.
