Gold closed modestly lower Wednesday but then erased losses in electronic trade after the release of minutes from the last FOMC meeting.
Gold for June delivery settled down $3.20, or 0.2%, to $1,305.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices ranged from an intraday low of $1,301.10 to a high of $1,314.30. In after-hours trade, the yellow metal was last up from the close by $5.60 to $1,311.50.
"The Fed sounds less hawkish than it did last month, which is good for gold," Michael Gayed, the chief investment strategist at Pension Partners LLC, said in a telephone interview according to Bloomberg News. "The market is confused because there are so many contradicting signals from the Fed."
Silver for May delivery dropped 29 cents, or 1.4%, to $19.77 an ounce, trading between $19.60 and $20.10. Silver was last up 11 cents from the close.
PGM’s split on Wednesday. In the daily breakdowns:
-
July platinum shed $2.80, or 0.2%, to $1,438.90 an ounce, ranging from $1,435.30 to $1,447.40.
- Palladium for June delivery tacked on $6.70, or 0.9%, to $782.55 an ounce, trading between $774 and $784.20.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals declined, except for palladium which was flat. In contrasting the London fix prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold fell $7.75, or 0.6%, to $1,301.75 an ounce,
- Silver lost 26 cents, or 1.3%, to $19.89 an ounce,
- Platinum dipped $2, or 0.1%, to $1,435 an ounce, and
- Palladium was unchanged at $775 an ounce
US Mint Bullion Sales in March
U.S. Mint sales of one-ounce American Gold Eagles advanced 1,500. No other U.S. Mint bullion coins registered gains on the day. Below is a sales breakdown across U.S. Mint bullion products with columns offering the number of bullion coins sold on Wednesday, last week, this week so far, last month, the month-to-date, and the year-to-date.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Sales Last Week | Sales This Week | March Sales | April Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $100 American Platinum Eagle Coins | 0 | 800 | 0 | 10,000 | 300 | 10,300 |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Coins | 1,500 | 10,000 | 1,500 | 16,000 | 10,500 | 111,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 18,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 6,000 | 48,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Coins | 0 | 10,000 | 5,000 | 30,000 | 15,000 | 255,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Coins | 0 | 7,000 | 3,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 75,500 |
| $1 American Silver Eagle Coins | 0 | 1,171,000 | 968,000 | 5,354,000 | 1,261,000 | 15,140,000 |
| Great Smoky Mountains National Park 5 Oz Bullion Coins | 0 | 2,800 | 0 | 12,400 | 2,600 | 15,000 |
