Gold broke away from a losing streak Wednesday, closing higher for the first time in four sessions but prices still remained under $1,300 an ounce.
Gold for August delivery gained $2.70, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,299.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"We are seeing some bargain hunting after the losses of the past two days but we are likely to be establishing a new range between $1,280 on the downside and $1,310 on the way up," Reuters quoted MKS SA head of trading Afshin Nabavi.
Gold traded from an intraday low of $1,293.50 to a high of $1,304.20. The precious metal on Tuesday settled at a more than three-week low.
Silver declined for a fourth consecutive session with futures for September delivery off 11 cents, or 0.6%, to $20.78 an ounce. Silver prices traded between $20.63 and $20.88.
Like gold, PGMs snapped a three-session losing streak. In their daily breakdowns:
-
October platinum inched up 70 cents to $1,485.75 an ounce, ranging from $1,481 to $1,492.10.
- Palladium for September delivery tacked on $8.20, or 0.9%, to $876.75 an ounce, trading between $867 and $877.20.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals turned lower. In contrasting the London bullion fix prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold fell $9, or 0.7%, to $1,301 an ounce,
- Silver declined 23 cents, or 1.1%, to $20.70 an ounce,
- Platinum lost $18, or 1.2%, to $1,479 an ounce, and
- Palladium shed $5, or 0.6%, to $869 an ounce
US Mint Bullion Sales in July
United States Mint bullion sales climbed slightly on Wednesday following strong gains on Tuesday and on Monday. Sales through the first three days of this week are handily better than those from all last week. By comparison, this week’s totals are already 80% higher for gold coins and 56% higher for silver coins.
In a milestone, sales of 2014 American Silver Eagles topped 25 million for the year. That happened with a late Tuesday increase of 160,000 coins. Since the silver coins debuted in 1986, the level has only been reached in five other years. Silver Eagle sales had been on an annual record pace until a few weeks ago when orders started to tumble. Last year when the annual Silver Eagle sales record jumped above 42.6 million, the bullion coins hit 27,575,000 by July 16, 2013. Silver prices on that day were just under $20 an ounce.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold on Wednesday, last week, this week so far, last month, the month to date, and the year to date.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Sales Last Week | Current Sales Week | June Sales | July Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $100 American Platinum Eagle Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 700 | 0 | 12,900 |
| $50 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 5,500 | 9,500 | 43,000 | 20,500 | 219,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 27,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 2,000 | 0 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 76,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 15,000 | 35,000 | 20,000 | 380,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 1,500 | 16,000 | 4,000 | 115,500 |
| $1 American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 360,000 | 560,000 | 2,692,000 | 995,000 | 25,123,500 |
| Great Smoky Mountains National Park 5 Oz Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 29,000 |
| Shenandoah National Park 5 Oz Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 900 | 0 | 20,000 |
| Arches National Park 5 Oz Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 500 | 1,000 | 18,500 | 1,500 | 20,000 |
