Gold futures declined for a fourth straight session on Tuesday, closing to their lowest settlement price in nearly three weeks.
Gold for June delivery shed $9.80, or 0.7%, to end at $1,424.50 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The settlement price was the lowest since April 24. Gold traded from an intraday low of $1,419.70 to a high of $1,444.90. A stronger U.S. dollar and diverting equities were cited factors for gold’s decline.
"The rallying U.S. and world stock markets continue to be a major bearish underlying factor for safe-haven gold, as well as other investment asset classes," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc., said in the daily PM Kitco Metals Roundup.
"As the U.S. and Japanese stock markets hit record or multi-year highs, they and other world stock markets continue to pull away investor monies from the other asset classes."
Silver for July delivery fell 31.7 cents, or 1.3%, to finish at $23.379 an ounce. The precious metal ranged from a low of $23.075 to a high of $23.760. Silver prices edged up 3.8 cents on Monday.
While gold and silver dropped, PGM’s notched the following healthy gains:
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Snapping a three-session losing streak, July platinum gained $17.40, or 1.2%, to close at $1,501.90 an ounce. Platinum traded between $1,481.40 and $1,510.00.
- Advancing for the fourth time in five sessions, palladium for June delivery rose $8.45, or 1.2%, to $727.15 an ounce. Prices ranged from $708.40 to $733.80.
London Fix Precious Metals
Silver declined Tuesday while other London precious metals fixings climbed. In contrasting the Monday PM to Tuesday PM London Fix prices:
- Gold added $3.00, or 0.2%, to $1,433.75 an ounce,
- Silver lost 22.0 cents, or 0.9%, to $23.44 an ounce,
- Platinum gained $4.00, or 0.3%, to $1,489.00 an ounce, and
- Palladium jumped $13.00, or 1.8%, to $718.00 an ounce
US Bullion Coin Sales in May
For the first time in two and a half months, the United States Mint began selling America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Bullion Coins. The U.S. Mint sold its entire older-dated inventory on March 1 and only made available the first 2013-dated coin this week. The latest five ounce issue, honoring White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, logged opening sales of 8,900 coins.
For now, the U.S. Mint is allocating or rationing how many White Mountain Five Ounce Silver Bullion Coins it sells to its authorized distributors. The distributors on Monday were told how many of the White Mountain coins they may buy this week, and they have until Friday to place actual orders. Any unsold coins will be added into the pool for allocation next Monday.
Sales advances for other U.S. Mint bullion coins on Tuesday include 10,500 ounces of Gold Eagles; 3,000 Gold Buffalos; and 685,500 Silver Eagles.
The following are daily, May and year-to-date bullion coin totals as published by the United States Mint.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday Sales | Last Week | Weekly Sales | May Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin | 10,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 459,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin | 1,000 | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 41,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 300,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coin | 3,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 5,500 | 137,500 |
| White Mountain 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coin | 8,900 | 0 | 8,900 | 8,900 | 8,900 |
| American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin | 658,500 | 900,000 | 658,500 | 1,558,500 | 19,868,500 |
*The U.S. Mint has temporarily suspended sales of its smallest American Gold Eagle until inventories are replenished. The Mint ran out of them on April 22.
I really like that the sales periods for the bullion and silver pucks are now finally somewhat coordinated with the sales for the regular Atb quarters. It took 3 years, but it is finally as it should be.