Gold and silver on Wednesday fell for a third straight day as strength in the U.S. dollar continued to erode the appeal of precious metals and as traders were risk-averse early over concerns about U.S. fiscal cliff negotiations.
Gold for December delivery declined $25.80, or 1.5%, to settle at $1,716.50 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The yellow metal traded between intraday levels of $1,705.50 and $1,743.10.
"There’s ‘risk-off’ trading, and behind that is talk of the fiscal cliff becoming more of a reality than people had thought," Harry Denny, a broker at Hoboken, New Jersey-based PVM, said in a telephone interview according to Bloomberg. "The fiscal-cliff resolution has everyone a little cautious."
December silver prices lost 29.7 cents, or 0.9%, to $33.684 an ounce. Silver ranged from a low of $32.90 to a high of $34.040.
Platinum and palladium bucked the downward trend of gold and silver on Tuesday, but only palladium did on Wednesday.
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Platinum for January delivery shed $6.80, or 0.4%, to $1,611.70 an ounce, trading between $1,583.00 and $1,616.90.
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Palladium for March delivery — the new, most active contract — added $5.15, or 0.8%, to settle at $675.20 an ounce. Palladium ranged from an intraday low of $646.90 to a high of $676.00.
Bullion Prices in London
London bullion prices were lower Wednesday. In contrasting the most recent PM fixings:
- Gold declined $38.25, or 2.2%, to $1,708.00 an ounce,
- Silver lost 20.0 cents, or 0.6%, to $33.85 an ounce,
- Platinum fell $30.00, or 1.9%, to $1,589.00 an ounce, and
- Palladium declined $19.00, or 2.8%, to $651.00 an ounce
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in November
U.S. Mint sales levels for silver coins remained unchanged Wednesday but gold coins exploded. The Mint’s gold bullion products soared by 48,000 ounces, with sales splits of 44,500 ounces for American Eagle gold coins and 3,500 ounces for American Buffalo gold coins.
For Gold Eagles, the Wednesday total alone surpassed four earlier 2012 months — the 21,000 in February, the 20,000 in April, the 30,500 in July and the 39,000 in August. Sales this month are at 120,000 ounces, or more than double the amount sold in October. November sales are 7,000 ounces away from this year’s monthly record of 127,000 ounces when the 2012-dated Eagles debuted in January.
A breakdown of U.S. Mint sales by bullion coin are in the tables below.
| US Mint American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date | November Sales | YTD 2012 | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Coins | 44,500 | 10,000 | 52,500 | 114,000 | 578,500 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3,000 | 66,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 70,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 10,000 | 5,000 | 35,000 | 315,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Coins | 3,500 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 14,000 | 121,500 |
| American Silver Eagle Coin | 0 | 394,000 | 400,000 | 3,059,500 | 32,007,500 |
| America the Beautiful 5 Oz. Silver Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date | November Sales | All-Time Total | |
| 2012 El Yunque National Forest 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,800 | 19,900 |
| 2012 Chaco Culture National Historical Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,800 | 20,000 |
| 2012 Acadia National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 3,100 | 3,600 | 25,400 |
| 2012 Hawai’i Volcanoes 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 20,000 |
| 2012 Denali National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 3,600 | 1,400 | 7,500 | 20,000 |
| 2011 Olympic National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 85,900 |
| 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39,500 |
| 2011 Chickasaw Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29,700 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 3,600 | 4,500 | 19,700 | 260,400 |
Bullion sales above are in the number of coins sold, not the amount of ounces.
That’s because as the debased dollar curve approaches zero it goes to infinity ergo so does gold and silver. Duh