Gold rose for a second straight session Monday with safe-have-demand and bargain-hunting cited as supporting elements after prices plunged $61.20, or 3.8%, last week.
In starting the new week, gold prices for August delivery settled up $21.50, or 1.4%, to $1,588.40 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Gold touched and intraday low of $1,566.90 and reached a high of $1,589.00.
"Gold remains a standout investment, whether from a risk perspective now, or from a longer-term perspective when governments around the world are going to have to deal with rampant inflation," Bloomberg quoted Gavin Wendt, founding director and senior resource analyst at MineLife Pty. "It’s incongruous that at a time of heightened financial uncertainty that gold should have been subjected to the sell-off that we’ve witnessed."
In other New York precious metals futures:
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Snapping a five-session losing streak, silver prices for July delivery rallied 85.9 cents, or 3.2%, to $27.520 an ounce. Silver traded between $26.565 and $27.590.
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Platinum prices for July delivery settled to $1,439.40 an ounce, gaining $8.20 or 0.6%. Platinum on the day ranged between $1,428.10 and $1,442.30.
- Palladium prices for September delivery inched up a nickel to $607.25 an ounce, moving between $604.25 and $612.35.
Last week the above metals suffered sharp losses of 7.2% for silver, 3.8% for platinum and 3.7% for palladium.
London Precious Metals
London precious were mixed Monday. When comparing the latest London PM fixings:
- Gold added $4.50, or 0.3%, to $1,570.00 an ounce,
- Silver dipped 9.0 cents, or 0.3%, to $26.72 an ounce,
- Platinum declined $1.00, or 0.1%, to $1,434.00 an ounce, and
- Palladium lost $2.00, or 0.3%, to $606.00 an ounce
Last week London precious metals declined at a rate of 3.8% for gold, 6.5% for silver, 3.9% for platinum and 3.8% for palladium.
U.S. Mint Bullion Coin Sales
Since the plunge in gold and silver prices on Thursday, demand for U.S. Mint bullion coins has climbed sharply. Monday proved to be another solid day for bullion products as U.S. Mint authorized purchasers ordered 4,500 ounces of gold coins and 510,000 ounces of silver coins.
In a milestone, American Silver Eagle’s pushed over 17 million for the year with still six months of sales left. Introduced in 1986, the bullion coin did not attain that level in annual sales until 2008.
The following are the latest daily, weekly, June and year-to-date bullion coin sales totals as published by the U.S. Mint.
| Sales of US Mint American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coins | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Gains | June Gains | YTD 2012 | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Coins | 3,000 | 43,000 | 273,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 55,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 4,000 | 50,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Coins | 5,000 | 20,000 | 170,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Coins | 1,000 | 8,500 | 73,500 |
| American Eagle Silver Coins | 493,000 | 2,568,000 | 17,102,000 |
| America the Beautiful 5 Oz. Bullion Silver Coin Sales | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Gains | June Gains | All-Time Total | |
| 2012 El Yunque National Forest 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 200 | 4,500 | 9,900 |
| 2012 Chaco Culture National Historical Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 3,200 | 3,200 | 3,200 |
| 2011 Olympic National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 85,200 |
| 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 200 | 38,600 |
| 2011 Chickasaw Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 28,900 |
| TOTAL | 3,400 | 3,500 | 162,400 |
All United States Mint bullion coin figures in the above tables are in coin totals, not the amount of ounces sold.
