Bullion Prices & Business Weekend Recap – July 17, 2010

A sharp drop in consumer sentiment and falling inflation helped take U.S. gold to its knees on Friday. The yellow metal was hit for its biggest one-day drop since July 1, accounting for nearly all of its 1.8 percent weekly loss.

Other precious metals futures followed gold lower, erasing prior weekly gains. Silver fell 1.6 percent for the week while platinum dipped 1.4 percent and palladium slid 1.8 percent.

Sour consumer sentiment, coupled with weaker than expected corporate earnings reports, was also cited for Friday’s 61 cent drop in crude oil and sharp declines in U.S. stocks. Earlier gains in the week pared their losses, however. In European stocks, the London FTSE 100 actually managed a 0.5 percent increase for the week — the only major index to register a gain.

Returning to bullion, New York gold for August delivery fell $20.10, or 1.7 percent, to $1,188.20 an ounce on Friday. The metal declined $21.60 this week.

"The [inflation] data was a bit disappointing, and it created a deflationary scare. There was a move out of paper assets and equities into Treasuries, and precious metals were caught in the middle," James Steel, chief commodities analyst at HSBC, was quoted on Reuters.

"Investors are running for the exits," Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a broker in Chicago, was quoted on Bloomberg. "The slowdown in consumer spending and the worse-than-expected earnings are taking some of the bullishness out of commodities.

In other New York precious metals weekly prices, September silver retreated 28.5 cents to $17.788 an ounce. October platinum declined $21.10 to $1,512.10 an ounce. And September palladium fell $8.35 to close at $448.60 an ounce.

In London bullion weekly prices, the gold fix was $1,189.25 an ounce, falling $19.50, or 1.6 percent.

"Today [Friday] you have a selloff, but if you look at it closely it doesn’t have too much to do with gold" but is more of a pan-market selloff, Jeffrey Christian, managing director at CPM Group in New York City, said and was relayed on MarketWatch.

"Following the confirmation that inflation is indeed wilting faster than the flora in many a park during this heat wave, the metals’ complex took a further liquidation hit," noted Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Metals, Inc. "The inflation that the gold market appeared to be factoring in during the past nine months has turned out to be little more than a figment of someone’s imagination," added Nadler.

In other weekly London prices: silver rose 38.0 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $18.250 an ounce; platinum settled at $1,512.00 an ounce, falling $15.00, or 1.0 percent; palladium was $456.00 an ounce for an increase of $2.00, or 0.4 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

(July 9 – 16)

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 prices fell Friday, "as a gauge of consumer sentiment dropped sharply and disappointing corporate earnings pushed U.S. stocks lower," wrote Claudia Assis and Cynthia Lin of MarketWatch.

U.S. consumer sentiment tumbled in early July to 66.5 from 76 in late June, hitting the lowest level in nearly a year, according to survey results released Friday by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan.

"The economic news is signaling a slowdown in growth," Victor Shum, a senior principal at Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore, was quoted on Bloomberg. "It’s creating a view that oil pricing in the high $70’s might be a little stronger than it should be."

New York crude oil for August delivery declined 0.8 percent to $76.01 a barrel. Prices retreated 8 cents, or 0.1 percent, for the week

Prices at the pump climbed two-tenth of a cent between Friday and Saturday. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.725 a gallon, according to the daily AAA fuel report. The price is 1.3 cents higher than last week, 1.8 cents more than a month back, and 24.4 cents higher than a year ago.

U.S. stocks slid Friday "after financial firms Bank of America and Citigroup reported weaker quarterly revenue and a plunge in consumer sentiment revived concerns about the economic outlook," wrote Alexandra Twin of CNNMoney.com.

"The macro news isn’t too good and the consumer confidence number is piling onto that," Scott Armiger, who helps manage about $5.6 billion at Christiana Bank & Trust in Greenville, Delaware, said on Bloomberg. "People were hanging their hats on earnings consistently meeting expectations, but instead we’re getting a mix of hits and misses."

Friday closing figures for the three major US indexes follow:

• The Dow fell 261.41 points, or 2.52 percent, to 10,097.90.

• The S&P plunged 31.60 points, or 2.88 percent, to finish at 1,064.88.

• The NASDAQ plummeted 70.03 points, or 3.11 percent, to 2,179.05.

For the week, the Dow lost 0.98 percent, the S&P retreated 1.21 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.79 percent.

And in other world markets on Friday:

• The German DAX dropped 109.09 points to 6,040.27.

• The Paris CAC 40 declined 81.66 points to end at 3,500.16.

• The London FTSE 100 fell 52.44 points to 5,158.85.

For the week, the DAX ended down 0.41 percent, the CAC 40 lost 1.53 percent and the FTSE 100 advanced 0.50 percent.

Disappointing quarterly revenue reports from Bank of America, Citigroup and General Electric added to concerns about the pace of the economic recovery, reports Conway G. Gittens in this Reuters video.

Bullion and Business Articles

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

• US Mint Sales: 1/10 oz Gold Eagles at 300K
  The United States Mint is not seeing a lot of action in numismatic coins as collectors take their traditional summer break from buying. U.S. Mint sales figures show that only four collector products experienced higher demand than the prior week –which was slow in itself, and those were related to older Presidential $1 offerings.

  Weekly sales eased for bullion coins as well, but their unit increases continue to be high despite the time of year. American Silver Eagles advanced a touch over 600K during the last seven days to reach 19.645 million for the year, passing the nearly 19.6 million sold in all of 2008. Mint authorized buyers need to order 9.2 million more in the next 5 1/2 months to topple record-breaking 2009.

  Fractional 1/10 ounce American Gold Eagles made their first showing for the month, advancing 10,000 on July 8 and then another 10,000 on July 13. They’ve scored …

• US Consumer Prices Dip, Annual Inflation at 1.1%
  U.S. consumers paid less for goods and services in June, thanks in large part to flat food prices and lower gasoline bills, the government reported Friday.

  The Consumer Price Index dropped 0.1% in June, marking the third straight monthly decline since March when prices edged 0.1% higher, according to Labor Department data. The index is the most closely watched indicator for inflation. The decline follows a 0.2% slide in May and a 0.1% dip in April. The last time consumer prices fell for three consecutive months was between October and December 2008.

  Sliding energy prices were the biggest contributor, down 2.9% in June, the same decline as in May. Gasoline prices plunged 4.5% to account for "most of the decrease," the Labor Department said…