Precious metals futures ended divided on Friday and for the week. Gold advanced for both, closing at a five-week high.
Gold for April delivery tacked on $22.50, or 1.7%, to settle at $1,349.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the highest since Feb. 16 when gold ended at $1,356.20 an ounce.
"It’s been a good week for precious metal bulls, with multiple factors supporting the yellow metal," Bloomberg News quoted Jordan Eliseo, chief economist at Australian Bullion Co. "Gold rallied after the Fed pushed through with their anticipated rate hike, whilst the troubling rhetoric around tariffs, and the sharp selloff in risk assets, is also providing some safe-haven demand."
Gold futures traded 2.9% higher this week after sliding 0.9% last week. The precious metal is up 3.1% on the year so far. In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street survey:
"Twenty-one market professionals took part in the weekly Kitco News Wall Street survey. Sixteen respondents, or 76%, called for gold prices to rise over the next week. Another five voters, or 24%, looked for gold to fall. Nobody called for a sideways market.
Meanwhile, 945 voters took part in an online Main Street poll. A total of 575 voters, or 61%, said bullish. Another 281 voters, or 30%, said bearish, while 89, or 9%, were neutral."
Silver for May delivery gained 19.5 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $16.582 an ounce. Silver futures advanced 1.9% this week after falling 2% last week. They are down 3.3% on the year.
In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:
-
April platinum dipped 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $948.40 an ounce, for a 0.2% weekly decline.
- Palladium for June delivery lost $10.25, or 1%, to $971.55 an ounce, for a 1.7% weekly loss.
The two remain divided on the year to date with platinum 1.1% higher and palladium 8.4% lower.
London Precious Metals Prices
London precious metals prices climbed on Friday and were mostly higher on the week. In comparing their levels from Thursday PM to Friday PM:
- Gold gained $17.45, or 1.3%, to $1,346.60 an ounce.
- Silver rose a penny, or less than 0.1%, to $16.53 an ounce.
- Platinum added $4, or 0.4%, to $954 an ounce.
- Palladium gained $2, or 0.2%, to $986 an ounce.
As for the week in LBMA metal prices, palladium dipped 0.1% while the others logged increases totaling 2.8% for gold, 0.3% for silver, and 0.4% for platinum.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2018
U.S. Mint bullion gold coin sales were muted for a second week in a row. Silver bullion coin sales, meanwhile, rose by 195,000 ounces after rising by 270,000 ounces last week. For a third straight week, sales came entirely from American Silver Eagles.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Last Week | This Week | February | March | 2018 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 | 0 | 20,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 2,500 | 43,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 95,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,500 | 1,000 | 27,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 270,000 | 195,000 | 942,500 | 630,000 | 4,807,500 |
| Pictured Rocks 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 | 0 | 20,000 |
Pork bellies are up for the week as pig futures look bleak.
Wow, this certainly isn’t an easy crowd to please. Tell you what; next time I’ll have to be sure to include one of those sold-out-in-minutes, now-hard-to-find 2017 S-ASE Congratulations Sets for everyone involved and/or concerned here as a sort of complimentary companion gift/peace offering to go with yet another of my admittedly off-the-beaten-path-type esoteric jokes and then we’ll see if that’s what it takes to help me end up with a more positive response! 🙂
Old Collector
Silver & Platinum, depends in which *bracket,$ your in, look good! I* can*t sea* them being worthless in the somewhat* near years, if you know what *i mean.
For my money, gold will always have the greatest visual appeal.
6 years* 5 months* ago, if i*m correct! 1.oz of silver *bullion, you could cash in for $31, & change. My *daughter & *wife had so much of their fake costume jewelry knot*ed up with *good gold plated, but *923, real silver jewelry, & some 10k & 12k gold chains laying around our home, that i* threw in a shoe box, & untied all of them, took sometime but *i did it, got out the old magnet to separate the real & fake jewelry, sent’s the two of them don*t listen or just don*t under stand, all that knot*ed up… Read more »
Joe Brown – Love it when you regale us with your tales of (precious) “mettalica”!
Old Collector – For my money, but i*do love the way gold looks, always! But not for the looks of that price for an once of *gold, *platinum on the other hand, & knowing that it sold higher than *gold for a time, & *gold was right up there, but *just below *platinum, i* love the way *platinum really looks at this moment! What *i really like to sea* is a *chest full of the three, *platinum*gold*palladium, & some *gem*rare, *silver & coppers , sprinkly on top ! So *i can sink my hands threw it all! Just as long… Read more »
Joe Brown – I must admit that while, as I previously stated, gold is my personal favorite of the precious metals, in no way does that preclude any interest on my part for silver, platinum and palladium; they are in fact all very beautiful and desirable. As a further thought, while I understand that it might of course be thrilling to have access to the level of financial resources that would enable one to acquire a large number of coins in a full array of those rare metals, I think there is still something to be said for on the… Read more »
If USA-China trade war heat up, will gold and silver go up to history high ? Will China Sliver Panda coin become more expensive ?
Silverboy – While there indeed might be some indication of an upward movement in precious metals in general as a result of a (possibly impending) US-China trade war, it will likely not have nearly as much of an effect on the price of either gold or silver as some of the past attempts at specifically controlling the market for and consequently the value of those and other precious metals have had. For example, when the billionaire Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market by buying up as much of the metal as they possibly could, there was a temporary… Read more »