Gold and silver rose slightly Wednesday after falling in the previous session on profit-taking. Platinum and palladium extended their streaks of multi-session gains.
In the numbers, gold for April delivery edged up $2.40, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,340.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold traded from a low of $1,332.70 to a high of $1,342. Prices on the week so far have climbed $18.70, or 1.4%.
"The weaker economic data out of the U.S. continues to support gold," Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market strategist at Archer Financial Services in Chicago, said in a telephone interview reported on Bloomberg News. "People are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine."
A report from payrolls processor ADP showed February private-sector jobs rose a tepid 139,000 while January’s total was revised down by 48,000 to 127,000. Additionally, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its service-sector index fell to 51.6 from 54 in January.
Silver tracked gold with the contract for May delivery closing at $21.27 an ounce, gaining a nickel, or 0.2%, after falling 26 cents in the previous session. Silver prices ranged from $21.16 to $21.34. The white metal is up 3 cents on the week.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
April platinum added $12.50, or 0.9%, to $1,476.60 an ounce, trading between $1,456.30 and $1,489. Platinum extended its winning sessions to three straight.
- Palladium for June delivery rose $9.05, or 1.2%, to $772.85 an ounce, ranging from $762.20 to $783. Palladium has advanced for five consecutive sessions.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals also advanced. In contrasting the London fix prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold inched up $2.25, or 0.2%, to $1,337 an ounce,
- Silver added 17 cents, or 0.8%, to $21.32 an ounce,
- Platinum tacked on $32, or 2.2%, to $1,481 an ounce, and
- Palladium jumped $29, or 3.9%, to $778 an ounce
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in March
Sales of United States Mint bullion products were limited to gold coins for the first time this week. Higher on the day were one ounce American Buffalo gold coins, up 500, and one-tenth ounce American Eagle gold coins, up 5,000.
Below is a sales breakdown across U.S. Mint bullion products with columns offering the number of bullion coins sold on Wednesday, the week-to-date, last week, in February 2014 and for the year-to-date.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Week-To-Date Sales | Sales Last Week | Sales Last Month | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 5,000 | 22,000 | 85,500 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 15,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 10,000 | 38,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 50,000 | 215,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins | 500 | 2,000 | 500 | 12,000 | 55,500 |
| American Silver Eagles | 0 | 903,500 | 1,250,000 | 3,750,000 | 9,428,500 |
Speaking of US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in March … does anyone know when the mint will be releasing the 2014 5-oz AtB Bullion coins…???
Gerry, there is no firm date yet. The U.S. Mint told us on Tuesday that “late March” was the time frame for the first 2014 five-ounce coin. That one will depict Great Smoky Mountains National Park.