Gold advanced Wednesday after falling for three sessions in a row.
Gold for June delivery, the new most-active contract, finished up $9.90, or 0.6%, to $1,607.20 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The precious metal traded through a range of $1,591.90 and $1,609.00.
"Fresh safe-haven demand was featured, as there are still worries about the Cyprus banking crisis causing a ‘run’ on European Union banks," noted Jim Wyckoff in the PM Kitco Metals Roundup.
"Cyprus banks are scheduled to reopen Thursday and television cameras will be on the ATM machines there, watching for big lines. That could spook other EU bank depositors. Gold also benefitted from short covering from weak-handed sellers of the metal just recently."
On Tuesday, gold lost $8.80 to slide below $1,600 an ounce for the first time since March 15.
Falling for a second day, silver for May delivery lost 6.7 cents, or 0.2%, to $28.612 an ounce. Silver ranged from an intraday low of $28.080 to a high of $28.785.
In PGM futures Wednesday:
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July platinum rose $13.70, or 0.9%, to $1,583.50 an ounce, trading between $1,571.50 and $1,586.60.
- Higher for a second day, palladium for June delivery added $6.90, or 0.9%, to $768.30 an ounce. Palladium traded between $754.50 and $771.50.
London Precious Metals
In London, silver was the single precious metal lower after rising by itself on the prior day. In contrasting the Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM London Fix prices:
- Gold gained $5.00, or 0.3%, to $1,603.00 an ounce,
- Silver lost 50.0 cents, or 1.7%, to $28.33 an ounce,
- Platinum added $10.00, or 0.6%, to $1,575.00 an ounce, and
- Palladium advanced $3.00, or 0.4%, to $760.00 an ounce
US Bullion Coin Sales in March
Bullion sales advanced for U.S. Mint gold products with Gold Eagles up 6,000 ounces and Gold Buffalos gaining 1,000. Sales were unchanged for Silver Eagles after the bullion coins surged 918,500 on the previous day to notably top year-to-date sales of 14 million. Until this month, 12.4 million had been the highest sales total through the first three months of a year.
The following are the available daily, March and year-to-date bullion coin totals as reported by the U.S. Mint.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date Sales | March Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Coins | 4,000 | 11,000 | 13,500 | 54,000 | 246,500 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Coins | 1,000 | 0 | 1,000 | 4,000 | 26,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Coins | 2,000 | 0 | 4,000 | 10,000 | 46,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Coins | 10,000 | 0 | 15,000 | 35,000 | 215,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Coins | 1,000 | 3,500 | 1,000 | 11,000 | 95,000 |
| American Silver Eagle Bullion Coins | 0 | 726,500 | 918,500 | 3,356,500 | 14,223,000 |
| America the Beautiful 5 Oz. Silver Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | Weekly Sales | March Sales | All-Time Sales | |
| 2012 El Yunque National Forest 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | Sold Out | 0 | 24,000 | ||
| 2012 Chaco Culture National Historical Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 600 | 24,400 | |||
| 2012 Acadia National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 25,400 | |||
| 2012 Hawai’i Volcanoes 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 20,000 | |||
| 2012 Denali National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 20,000 | |||
| 2011 Olympic National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104,900 |
| 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10,400 | 58,100 |
| 2011 Chickasaw Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8,800 | 48,700 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19,800 | 325,500 |
All bullion figures above are in the number of coins sold. Calculate total ounces by using the bullion coin’s weight.
