Bullion Prices & Business Weekend Recap – June 5, 2010

Attributions for pressuring commodities and stocks lower were disappointing U.S. employment numbers that raised recovery questions coupled with new concerns that Europe’s debt crisis would create a double-dip recession.

Gold was the single precious metal to rise in New York on Friday and during the holiday shortened week. Silver and palladium fell the furthest as industrial assets were hit harder over fears of weakened global demand.

Crude-oil tumbled more than 4 percent on the final trading day, handing back gains as prices fell under $72 a barrel after missing $74 a barrel by 3 cents last Friday. World stocks declined as well, with benchmark indexes posting weekly losses of 0.12 percent on the low end and 2.25 percent at the upper.

In New York precious metals weekly prices, August gold rose $2.70, or 0.2 percent, to close at $1,217.70 an ounce.

"Gold becomes the benefactor when all other currencies fail," Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago, said on Bloomberg. "When the economy goes into a double-dip recession, everything will go down, and gold simply has to hold its value."

New York silver for July delivery fell $1.123, or 6.1 percent, to $17.299 an ounce. July platinum lost $24.10, or 1.6 percent, to end at $1,525.30 an ounce. September palladium declined $32.45, or 7.0 percent, to close at $431.00 an ounce.

"With the employment numbers coming short of expectations and the majority of jobs being census workers rather than private payrolls, I think it shows there’s a chance the economy is not recovering as fast as previously believed," Tom Pawlicki, precious metals analyst at MF Global in Chicago, was quoted on Reuters. "If the odds of a double-dip recession increasing based on this, I think that would be positive for gold."

"Investment demand in gold remains ripe," Barclays analysts said in a note to clients on Friday that was cited on MarketWatch. They added that holdings are concentrated on SPDR Gold.

In London bullion weekly prices, gold was fixed to $1,203.50 an ounce, edging down $4.00, or 0.3 percent. Silver fell 77 cents, or 4.2 percent to $17.760 an ounce.

In PGM metals, platinum settled at $1,527.00 an ounce, declining $28.00, or 1.8 percent while palladium was $440.00 an ounce, falling $31.00, or 6.6 percent.

To follow are silver, gold, platinum and palladium performance charts, oil news, week-ending stocks, and precious metal article summaries.

London Fix Charts: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Palladium

(May 28 – June 4)

The London Fix is one of the most used bullion quotes around the world. The London AM fix for gold and platinum begins at 10:30am GMT (5:30am in New York), and the PM fix begins at 3pm GMT (10am in New York). The London Fix for silver begins each business day at 12pm GMT (7am in New York).

London Fix Precious Metals Prices

World Business News: Oil, Gasoline, and Stocks Prices

Crude oil futures fell "4.1% Friday, their largest single-day drop since Feb. 4, as a much-anticipated jobs report disappointed and new worries about Europe raised fears of a double-dip recession," wrote Claudia Assis and Nick Godt of MarketWatch.

"Payrolls have pushed equity markets down," Frank Schallenberger, head of commodities research at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, said by phone from Stuttgart and was quoted on Bloomberg. "That puts the recovery in doubt and then people starting thinking about lower oil consumption."

On Friday, New York crude oil for July delivery tumbled $3.10 to close at $71.51 a barrel. Oil prices declined 3.3 percent for the week.

Prices at the pump fell a half cent between Friday and Saturday. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.721 a gallon, according to a AAA fuel report. The price is 2.0 cents lower than last week, 20.8 cents less than a month back, and 12.9 cents higher than a year ago.

U.S. stocks tumbled Friday "after a government report showed employers added fewer jobs than expected last month and the euro plunged to a new 4-year low, reviving worries about the health of the European economy," wrote Alexandra Twin of CNNMoney.com.

"If the worker is not going back to work, then the question becomes whether earnings estimates for the second half of this year are too high, and if they are too high, is the market priced appropriately?" Stephen Wood, who helps manage $176 billion as chief market strategist for Russell Investments in New York, said on Bloomberg.

"There’s a tug-of-war between a sloppy economic recovery and some very negative headline news. The rest of 2010 is going to be choppier."

Friday closing figures for the three major US indexes follow:

• The Dow fell 323.31 points, or 3.15 percent, to close at 9,931.97.

• The S&P slid 37.95 points, or 3.44 percent, to finish at 1,064.88.

• The NASDAQ declined 83.86 points, or 3.64 percent, to 2,219.17.

For the week, the Dow lost 2.01 percent, the S&P fell 2.25 percent and the Nasdaq declined 1.68 percent.

And in other world markets on Friday:

• The German DAX ended down 115.75 points to close at 5,938.88.

• The Paris CAC 40 declined 101.73 points to end at 3,455.61.

• The London FTSE 100 fell 85.18 points to 5,126.00.

For the week, the DAX declined slightly by 0.12 percent, the CAC 40 lost 1.69 percent and the FTSE 100 fell 1.20 percent.

Bullion and Business Articles

In related bullion, business and United States Mint news, interesting or quick-read articles from the week include:

• 2010 Fractional Gold Eagle Bullion Coins on Sale June 10
  The United States Mint this morning officially announced a release date of Thursday, June 10, for the 22-karat 2010 American Eagle Gold Bullion Fractional Coins.

  The one-ounce Gold Eagle went on sale January 19. Buyers have sprung at the chance to scoop them up. 190,000 were sold during May, which was the highest sales level since 1999.

  The fractional sizes that will be available include the one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounce. The US Mint indicates they will be offered for sale through the "standard allocation process."…

• May 2010 US Gold Bullion Sales Highest Since 1999
  Buyers spent more money last week for both numismatic and bullion United States Mint coins.

  190,000 ounces of bullion American Gold Eagles left U.S. Mint inventories in May. That marks the highest level since 216,000 were sold in June 1999.

  Mint authorized purchasers also snapped up 70,500 American Gold Buffalos, bringing the total ounces of bullion gold May sales to 260,500. Only one month since the Mint’s bullion program launched in 1986 recorded better, and that was January 1999 with 281,000 ounces of gold coins…