XAG/USD bears have the upper hand, 50-day SMA breakdown in play

Silver remains depressed below the 50-day SMA for the second straight day on Monday.

The technical setup favors bearish traders and supports prospects for additional losses.

Weakness below the $31.00 mark should pave the way for a slide to the 100-day SMA.

Silver (XAG/USD) trades with a negative bias for the second straight day on Monday, albeit it lacks follow-through selling and manages to hold above the $31.00 mark through the Asian session. The white metal, meanwhile, remains close to over a three-week low touched last Wednesday and seems vulnerable to prolonging its recent corrective decline from a 12-year peak. 

From a technical perspective, acceptance below the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) validates the bearish outlook. Adding to this, oscillators on the daily chart have been gaining negative traction and suggest that the path of least resistance for the XAG/USD is to the downside. That said, it will still be prudent to wait for some follow-through selling below the $31.00 mark before positioning for a slide towards testing the 100-day SMA, currently pegged near the $30.35 region.

This is followed by the $30.00 psychological mark, below which the XAG/USD could accelerate the fall toward the next relevant support near the $29.50-$29.45 area.  The downward trajectory could extend further towards the $29.00 mark en route to the very important 200-day SMA, currently around the $28.70-$28.65 region.