• Silver consolidates in a range just above a nearly two-week low touched on Wednesday.
• Bears now await a break below an ascending trend-line support before placing fresh bets.
• Any meaningful recovery attempt is more likely to attract fresh sellers and remain capped.

Silver struggles to gain any meaningful traction on Thursday and oscillates in a narrow band, around mid-$22.00s through the first half of the European session. The white metal remains well within the striking distance of a nearly two-week low, around the $22.40 region touched on Wednesday, which is closely followed by an ascending trend line support extending from the June monthly low.

The latter is currently pegged around the $22.35 area, which if broken will be seen as a fresh trigger for bearish traders and set the stage for an extension of the recent downfall witnessed over the past week or so. Given that oscillators on the daily chart are holding deep in the negative territory and are still far from being in the oversold zone, the XAG/USD might then slide to test the next relevant support near the $22.00 round-figure mark. Some follow-through selling could accelerate the downward trajectory further towards the $21.25 intermediate support en route to the $21.00 level.

On the flip side, the $22.75-$22.80 region is likely to act as an immediate hurdle ahead of the $23.00 mark and the $23.20-$23.25 zone. This is closely followed by the very important 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), currently around the $23.45 region and last week's swing high, around the $23.75 area. A convincing break through the said barrier should lift the XAG/USD to the $24.00 round figure en route to the $24.30-$24.35 barrier. Bulls might eventually aim to reclaim the $25.00 psychological mark