Bars of 1000 gram silver are seen in this picture illustration at a precious metal refinery in Istanbul
Silver has been unable to hold on to its gains and the picture looks bearish. A break below 38.00 is likely to see further selling. Reuters

Silver rose in early U.S. trading Wednesday and shares of several large silver mining companies also gained in premarket trading.

Silver for December delivery on the CME Comex of the New York Mercantile Exchange added 25 cents to $40.10 and spot silver was selling for $40.06, a 12 cent per ounce gain.

Silver Wheaton Corp., Endeavor Silver Corp. and Silvercorp Metals Inc. all rose slightly in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, stock index futures rose as investors focused on strong earnings reports from Target Corp. and Staples Inc. and as the euro climbed.

"We've seen some household names put out better earnings numbers this morning, and that's extremely constructive," Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York told Reuters.

S&P 500 futures rose 3.5 points, above fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 40 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.5 points.

Dow jones New York Silver Silver