Gold, silver and other precious metals on Monday shed a small portion of their gains from last week. Profit-taking and a firmer U.S. dollar were among the reasons cited by analysts.
Gold for December delivery dipped $1.80, or 0.1%, to $1,749.60 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Trading went through intraday levels of $1,746.00 and $1,752.30. Last week the precious metal surged 2.1% to post a nearly 12% increase for the year. It was up by more than $23 on Friday alone.
"There is some backpedaling today because the dollar is stronger and there is nothing new out of Europe," Phil Streible, a senior commodity broker at R.J. O’Brien & Associates, said in a telephone interview relayed on Bloomberg. "We are seeing some profit-taking after the nice rally on Friday."
Silver retreated the least in precious metals. December futures for the white metal declined 2.1 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $34.137 an ounce. Prices traded from an intraday low of $33.885 to a high of $34.225. Silver traded 5.4% higher last week.
In PGM futures on Monday:
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Platinum for January delivery fell $6.10, or 0.4%, to close at $1,611.00 an ounce. It moved through a daily range of $1,605.60 to $1,623.70.
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Palladium for December delivery settled down $6.40, or 1.0%, to $661.20 an ounce, trading between $659.00 and $671.35.
Platinum led precious metals gains last week at 6.6%. Palladium logged a 3.5% increase.
Bullion Prices in London
London precious metals started the week on a positive note with increases across the board. In contrasting the most recent PM fixings:
- Gold added $16.00, or 0.9%, to $1,750.50 an ounce,
- Silver gained 67.0 cents, or 2.0%, to $34.08 an ounce,
- Platinum advanced $29.00, or 1.8%, to $1,613.00 an ounce, and
- Palladium rose $10.00, or 1.5%, to $667.50 an ounce
Increases last week were 1.2% for gold, 3.5% for silver, 1.9% for platinum and 5.5% for palladium.
Sales of US Mint Bullion Coins in November
Sales were robust Monday for U.S. Mint bullion products. Authorized distributors for the United States Mint ordered 422,500 ounces of silver coins, already topping the 412,000 ounces sold during all of last week. One-day sales of bullion gold coins climbed 9,000 ounces compared to last week’s 13,000 ounces.
A breakdown of U.S. Mint sales by coin is provided in the tables below.
| US Mint American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date | November Sales | YTD 2012 | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Coins | 8,000 | 10,000 | 8,000 | 69,500 | 534,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3,000 | 66,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 70,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Coins | 5,000 | 10,000 | 5,000 | 35,000 | 315,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Coins | 500 | 2,000 | 500 | 10,500 | 118,000 |
| American Silver Eagle Coin | 400,000 | 394,000 | 400,000 | 3,059,500 | 32,007,500 |
| America the Beautiful 5 Oz. Silver Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date | November Sales | All-Time Total | |
| 2012 El Yunque National Forest 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,800 | 19,900 |
| 2012 Chaco Culture National Historical Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,800 | 20,000 |
| 2012 Acadia National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 3,100 | 0 | 3,100 | 3,600 | 25,400 |
| 2012 Hawai’i Volcanoes 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 20,000 |
| 2012 Denali National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 1,400 | 3,600 | 1,400 | 7,500 | 20,000 |
| 2011 Olympic National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 85,900 |
| 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39,500 |
| 2011 Chickasaw Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29,700 |
| TOTAL | 4,500 | 3,600 | 4,500 | 19,700 | 260,400 |
Bullion sales above are in the number of coins sold, not the amount of ounces.
