Thursday was bullish for precious metals with the U.S. dollar lower and safe-haven demand in full force as U.S. stocks plunged for a second day and violence escalated in Egypt. Gold soared to a seven-week high and silver notched a sixth straight day of gains to close near $23 an ounce.
Gold for December delivery rallied $27.50, or 2.1%, to finish at $1,360.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The precious metal has advanced in six of the last seven sessions. Gold bracketed $1,317.90 and $1,367.90.
"Pundits out there are touting safe haven demand, and I can’t argue with that," MarketWatch quoted Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter. "The deteriorating situation in Egypt and the selloff in U.S. equities are undoubtedly having an effect."
"But that effect is being exacerbated by the extreme tightness in the physical gold market," he said. "As the recent filings have highlighted, western speculators sold their gold this spring, and it’s been shipped to China and elsewhere in Asia. The Asian markets are still buying, and if western traders want to buy gold now, they’re going to have to fight these Eastern savers for every last ounce."
Silver soared, hurdling over $22 to just miss $23 an ounce. Silver prices for September delivery advanced $1.15, or 5.3%, to $22.94 an ounce. Silver prices ranged from $21.71 to $23.19.
PGMs gained for a third straight session. In their settlements for the day:
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October platinum settled up $27.10, or 1.8%, to $1,532.30 an ounce, trading between $1,500.60 and $1,536.
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Palladium for September added $16.50, or 2.2%, to $756.85 an ounce, ranging from $739.95 to $769.50
London Fix Precious Metals
London precious metals fixings registered gains as well. In contrasting the Wednesday PM to Thursday PM London Fix prices:
- Gold inched up $3.25, or 0.2%, to $1,329.75 an ounce,
- Silver prices surged 50 cents, or 2.3%, to $22 an ounce,
- Platinum added $13, or 0.9%, to $1,504 an ounce, and
- Palladium rose $9, or 1.2%, to $746 an ounce
US Bullion Sales
Sales totals for U.S. Mint bullion coins were unchanged Thursday. The following are the available daily, August and year-to-date bullion sales as published by the United States Mint.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sales | Last Week | Week-To-Date Sales | August Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,500 | 589,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,000 | 48,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 94,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 455,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 1,500 | 4,500 | 184,500 |
| White Mountain 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29,900 |
| Perry’s Victory 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 300 | 300 | 21,100 |
| Great Basin 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17,400 |
| American Silver Eagle Bullion Coins | 0 | 850,000 | 746,000 | 1,596,000 | 31,046,000 |
Figures above are in the number of coins sold, not in ounces.
Golf? Don’t you mean gold?
Mike,
Like Joe said, there is a typo in the title of this article.