Gold futures retreated for a second straight session Friday to finish the holiday-shortened trading week at a more than 9-1/2-month low. Markets in the U.S. closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and ended early on Black Friday.
Gold for December delivery lost $10.90, or 0.9%, to finish at $1,178.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the lowest since Feb. 5 when the yellow metal ended at $1,157.70 an ounce.
"The rising dollar, yields and U.S. equity prices all weighed on the appeal of the buck-denominated, non interest-bearing and perceived safe-haven precious metal," Reuters quoted Fawad Razaqzada, a technical analyst for Forex.com.
Gold futures dropped 2.5% this week after two previous weekly declines of 1.3% and 6.2%. Prices are still 11.2% higher for the year so far.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street survey:
"Fifteen traders and analysts took part in the Wall Street survey. Nine, or 60%, look for gold to bounce over the course of the next week. Three, or 20%, look for gold to be weaker, with the same number forecasting a sideways market.
Meanwhile, 766 Main Street participants submitted votes in an online survey. A total of 232 respondents, or 30%, said they were bullish for the week ahead, while 428, or 56%, were bearish. The neutral votes totaled 106, or 14%."
Elsewhere, silver for December delivery rose 7.9 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $16.47 an ounce. In the previous session, they ended at their weakest level since June 3. Silver futures slipped 0.9% this week for their third straight weekly decline. They fell 4.4% last week and 5.4% in the week before then. The losses have trimmed silver’s year to date gain to 19.3%.
In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:
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January platinum declined $22.80, or 2.5%, to $908.30 an ounce, for a 1.5% weekly loss.
- Palladium for December delivery settled up $3.65, or 0.5%, to $741.05 an ounce, raising its weekly increase to 1.8%.
Both metals are higher so far this year with gains of 1.7% for platinum and 31.95% for palladium.
London Precious Metals Prices
London precious metals prices were mixed Friday and on the week. In comparing their levels from Thursday PM to Friday PM:
- Gold added $1.60, or 0.1%, to $1,187.70 an ounce.
- Silver added 14.6 cents, or 0.9%, to $16.456 an ounce.
- Platinum fell $8, or 0.9%, to $906 an ounce.
- Palladium fell $4, or 0.5%, to $729 an ounce.
In their weekly changes, palladium gained 1.5% while gold, silver and platinum fell 1.9%; 0.3%; and 1.8%.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in 2016
United States Mint bullion sales slowed from their furious pace last week when both gold and silver coins scored their highest weekly gains since January when newly dated 2016-editions debuted. In week-over-week comparisons:
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Gold coin sales advanced 30,500 ounces after surging 57,000 ounces previously. This week’s splits include 27,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles compared to 45,500 ounces previously and 3,000 ounces in American Gold Buffalo compared to 11,500 ounces previously.
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Silver coin sales advanced 756,000 ounces after soaring 1,688,000 ounces previously. This week’s splits include 690,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles compared to 1,551,000 ounces previously and 66,000 ounces in America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Bullion Coins compared to 137,000 ounces previously.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion coins with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold during varying periods Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday Sales | Last Week | This Week | Oct Sales | Nov Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coins* | – | 20,000 | ||||
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 9,000 | 39,000 | 25,500 | 100,500 | 100,000 | 765,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 8,000 | 6,000 | 70,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 2,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 148,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 5,000 | 55,000 | 5,000 | 75,000 | 85,000 | 865,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 1,000 | 11,500 | 3,000 | 28,500 | 23,000 | 200,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 1,551,000 | 690,000 | 3,825,000 | 2,886,000 | 37,286,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 105,000 | ||||
| 2016 Cumberland Gap 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 75,000 | ||||
| 2016 Harpers Ferry 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 300 | 1,200 | 200 | 1,500 | 38,000 |
| 2016 Theodore Roosevelt 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 2,300 | 6,000 | 3,100 | 8,600 | 41,200 |
| 2016 Fort Moultrie 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 24,800 | 6,000 | – | 30,800 | 30,800 |
Mike Unser –
This article title should say “month low” instead of “week low”.
-NumisDudeTX
Interesting how the 1 oz. & 1/10 oz. Gold coin sales tanked last week, while the 1/4 oz. sales doubled. Perhaps an international buyer picked up a large quantity of the latter?
Who knows? I may just be talking turkey here.