Gold advanced for the third time this week, recouping a portion of the prior session’s loss.
Gold for August delivery gained $6.70, or 0.5%, to end at $1,284.20 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The precious metal traded in a narrow range with an intraday low of $1,273.30 and a high at $1,287.90.
"Physical demand is keeping the gold market alive," Sterling Smith, a Chicago-based commodity futures specialist at Citigroup Inc., said in a telephone interview according to Bloomberg News. "We also saw some technical buying come in."
In the previous session, gold declined from a more than three-week high when it lost $12.90, or 1%.
Silver dropped for a second day with September futures off 3.1 cents, or 0.2%, to $19.39 an ounce. The white metal ranged from $19.22 to $19.57. Silver plummeted in the prior session by 51.5 cents, or 2.6%.
In PGM futures in New York on Thursday:
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October platinum tacked on $3.80, or 0.3%, to $1,414.80 an ounce, trading between $1,406.10 and $1,419.90.
- Advancing in eight of the last nine sessions, palladium for September delivery settled up $12.05, or 1.6%, to $747.50 an ounce. Palladium ranged from $726.60 to $751.60.
London Fix Precious Metals
London precious metals split with all but palladium lower. In contrasting the Wednesday PM to Thursday PM London fixings:
- Gold declined $14, or 1.1%, to $1,283.25 an ounce,
- Silver fell 34 cents, or 1.7%, to $19.49 an ounce,
- Platinum lost $11, or 0.8%, to $1,413 an ounce, and
- Palladium edged up $3, or 0.4%, to $737 an ounce
US Bullion Coin Sales in July
Sales increases for United States Mint bullion products summed to 4,000 ounces in gold coins and 17,500 ounces in silver coins. Demand for the Mint’s core products, American Eagle gold and silver bullion coins, has already improved over last week.
The following table offers daily, July and year-to-date bullion coin totals as published by the U.S. Mint on its website.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date Sales | July Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 3,500 | 5,000 | 6,500 | 26,500 | 571,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 47,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 6,000 | 92,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 5,000 | 0 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 440,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 6,000 | 2,000 | 13,500 | 175,000 |
| White Mountain 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 1,100 | 800 | 1,100 | 2,900 | 29,900 |
| Perry’s Victory 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 2,400 | 2,400 | 2,400 | 5,800 | 20,000 |
| Great Basin 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 1,200 | 7,500 | 17,400 |
| American Silver Eagle Bullion Coins | 0 | 830,500 | 875,000 | 2,531,500 | 27,575,000 |
Figures above are in the number of coins sold, not in ounces.
