Reddit traders send mining stocks higher as silver futures jump to eight-year high

Silver futures SI00, +11.32% rose as much as 13%.

The gains in silver illustrate the wild moves in certain stocks and assets over the last week, initially fueled by a short squeeze on the U.S. videogames retailer GameStop GME, +67.87% fuelled on the Reddit message board that has spread to other assets.

“Influencing the price of silver will not be as easy as a single small or medium sized single equity. Silver’s market cap is in the range of $1.4 trillion to $1.6 trillion as opposed to GameStop’s $1.5 billion before becoming the target of retail investors, and a large proportion of the market is off-exchange. However, it will be interesting to see the small players’ power and how much further they can push prices,” said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM.

After a rough week in which it lost 3.1%, the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, +1.47% rose 1.1% on Monday.

U.S. stock futures ES00, +1.07% also were higher.

Of stocks on the move, JD Sports Fashion JD, +6.69% rose 6% after agreeing to buy DTLR Villa, a Baltimore-based athletic footwear and apparel retailer with 247 stores, for $495 million. In the 52 weeks ended Feb. 1, DTLR had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $45.6 million.

Klépierre LI, -4.78% declined, as the shopping-mall operator said 88% of its French malls are closed, as are nonessential shops in Italy, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Czech Republic, Barcelona and Oviedo in Spain, and Oslo in Norway.