Gold and Silver Prices Rise for 5th Straight Week

A rebounding U.S. dollar pressured gold prices lower Friday, breaking a two-day string of records. Silver retreated as well, dropping from a 30-year high closing price. Still, both precious metals advanced handily this week, capping a fifth straight week of gains.

In other market action on Friday, crude oil tumbled to its lowest level in two weeks and fell for its first weekly loss in four. U.S. stocks were mixed on Friday but higher for the week, with the Nasdaq rising nearly 2.8 percent.

In U.S. bullion prices, gold for December delivery retreated $5.60, or 0.4 percent, to settle at $1,372.00 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, however, the yellow metal surged $26.70, or 2.0 percent, after last week’s 2.1 increase.

"People are selling physical metal at these levels," Matthew Zeman, a trader at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago, said and was quoted on Bloomberg. "With the run-up we’ve had, it’s not surprising to see some profit-taking.

December silver lost 14.7 cents, or 0.6 percent, to close at $24.288 an ounce on Friday. It soared $1.183, or 5.1 percent, for the week after rising 4.7 percent last week. It is up 44 percent this year.

The only precious metal to decline in New York was platinum. January futures settled Friday at $1,695.40 an ounce for a loss of $17.20, or 1.0 percent. Platinum declined $13.30, or 0.8 percent, for the week after gaining 1.6 percent last week.

Finally, palladium futures for December delivery tumbled $12.35, or 2.1 percent, to $589.20 an ounce. It edged up $1.60, or 0.3 percent this week after rising 2.2 percent last week.

In London bullion weekly prices, the gold Fix was $1,367.50 an ounce for a gain of $26.00, or 1.9 percent. Silver was by far the best performer of the precious metals, scoring a weekly increase of 9.2 percent. In dollar terms, it jumped $2.05 with a Friday PM Fix of $24.420.

"As has frequently been pointed out in these columns, the recent (two-year) over-dependence on investment demand in gold comes at a time when underlying fundamentals are anything but encouraging," said Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Metals, Inc., "Rising mine and scrap supply, caving primary fabrication demand and the absence of the much-hyped central banking buying-to-come has left the market in a position where it is now solely defined by momentum players, hedge funds, and continuing ETF demand,"

"The gold market effectively needs to ‘run hard’ just to ‘stand still’ at these levels and must absorb perhaps as many as 1,700 tonnes in the ‘investment’ category in the coming year, in order not to ‘adjust’ to lower levels," added Nadler.

In PGM metals, platinum was $1,691.00, advancing $8.00, or 0.5 percent, since last Friday while palladium was $591.00, higher by $19.00, or 3.3 percent.

7-Day United States Mint Bullion Coin Sales

U.S. Mint American Gold Eagle bullion coins moved slower than the previous week. The one-ounce Gold Eagle added 19,000 versus 30,000. The tenth-ounce size climbed 10,000, matching its prior weekly gain. The half-once added 2,000 against 1,000.

Bullion American Silver Eagles coins raced, advancing 875,000 and topping 27 million for the year. Last week’s 7-day gain came in at 425,000. The silver coins are just 255,000 away from surpassing the monthly total in September.

For always up-to-date coin sales, visit the CoinNews.net page listing bullion sales figures.

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

(October 8-15)

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).

30-Day London Fix Precious Metals Prices

Business News: Oil, Gasoline, and Stock Prices

Crude oil prices ended lower Friday and for the week. Losses were attributed to a rebounding U.S. dollar.

"Crude has been tightly correlated to the dollar in the last three sessions," Tariq Zahir, managing member of Tyche Capital Advisors, said and was cited on MarketWatch. "With the dollar gaining some strength today, we’re seeing crude trade at the lows of the session. We see it pretty range-bound between $81 and $84 a barrel."

U.S. crude oil for November delivery ended down $1.44, or 1.74 percent to $81.25 a barrel. For the week, oil declined $1.41, or 1.71 percent, after gaining $1.08, or 1.32 percent, last week.

Prices at the pump advanced a tenth of a cent between Friday and Saturday. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.834 a gallon, according to the daily AAA fuel report. The price is 4.2 cents higher than last week, 10.0 cents more than the price from a month back, and 33.3 cents higher than a year ago.

U.S. stocks were mixed on Friday, with financial stocks pressured as concerns over the foreclosure crisis continued. Tech stocks, however, rallied.

"The market is trying to assess the bank situation," Quincy Krosby, market strategist with Prudential Financial, said and was quoted on CNNMoney.com. "It does look as if it’s more headline risk as opposed to a material one so far. But we need more clarity on how it could affect the bottom line."

Friday closing figures for the three major U.S. indexes follow:

• The Dow lost 31.79 points, or 0.29 percent, to 11,062.78.

• The S&P gained 2.38 points, or 0.20 percent, to close at 1,176.19.

• The NASDAQ advanced 33.39 points, or 1.37 percent, to 2,468.77.

For the week, the Dow climbed 0.51 percent, the S&P 500 increased 0.95 percent, and the Nasdaq rose 2.78 percent.

And in other world markets on Friday:

• The German DAX gained 37.03 points to 6,492.30.

• The Paris CAC 40 added 8.20 points to settle at 3,827.37.

• The London FTSE 100 lost 23.84 points to 5,703.37.

For the week, the DAX advanced 3.19 percent, the CAC 40 rose 1.71 percent and the FTSE 100 climbed 0.81 percent.

U.S. Week Ahead Business Video by Reuters

Several large U.S. financial institutions report earnings next week after a difficult quarter plagued by weak investment banking revenues and loan losses. Several tech companies will be reporting their earnings as well, including Apple, IBM and Yahoo. These topics and more are covered in the following Reuters’ "The week ahead" business video:

Bullion and Economic Articles

In related United States Mint bullion coin news, quick-read articles from the week included:

• Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Soar
  Record gold and 30-year high silver prices has without question raised the demand for bullion products. So much so that there is not much excitement in the latest round of U.S. Mint sales figures after collector proof 2010 Gold Eagles and investor bullion coins are pulled out …

• Core US Inflation Slowest in Decades
  U.S. inflation slowed more than expected in September as consumer prices eased from their prior monthly level, government data showed Friday. The core annual inflation rate declined to the lowest point in nearly five decades, raising worries of deflation and supporting expectations for another round of quantitative easing by the Fed …