Gold settled at a three-week high to start the new trading week on Monday, silver ended a penny above $20 an ounce, and palladium hit another multi-year high.
Gold for June delivery moved up $8.50, or 0.6%, to $1,327.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices ranged from a low of $1,318.70 to a high of $1,331.40. The closing price was the highest since March 21.
"I think the need to have some gold in investment portfolios for safety now is more than ever," Reuters quoted Phillip Streible, senior commodities broker at RJ O’Brien. "A lot of people don’t necessarily trust the stock market at the moment."
Gold prices last week settled up 1.2%.
After ending flat last week, silver for May delivery picked up 6 cents, or 0.3%, to end at $20.01 an ounce. The precious metal traded between $19.72 and $20.14.
In PGM futures on Monday:
-
July platinum rose $4.80, or 0.3%, to $1,467.40 an ounce, ranging from $1,459.50 to $1,471.50.
- Palladium for June delivery added $4.70, or 0.6%, to $811.50 an ounce, trading between $807.10 and $817.
Palladium scored a fresh 32-month high, buoyed by supply woes from the labor strike in South Africa and over Ukraine-Russian tensions.
"Rarely have there been such favorable conditions in terms of strong demand versus disrupted supply," Steven Scacalossi, the head of global metals sales at TD Securities in Toronto, said in a report according to Bloomberg News. "Palladium is the market in the spotlight."
Russia is the leading producer of palladium with South Africa immediately behind. Bloomberg News reports Russia and South Africa respectively account for 40% and 37% of the palladium produced in the world.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals split with silver lower and the other metals higher. In contrasting the London fix prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:
- Gold gained $7.75, or 0.6%, to $1,325.75 an ounce,
- Silver fell 35 cents, or 1.7%, to $19.74 an ounce,
- Platinum tacked on $12, or 0.8%, to $1,466 an ounce, and
- Palladium jumped $19, or 2.4%, to $813 an ounce
Last week, advances included 1.6% for gold, 0.8% for silver, 0.7% for platinum and 0.6% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in March
U.S. Mint bullion sales on Monday advanced across Gold Eagles, Silver Eagles and ATB 5 oz. bullion coins. In total ounces, gold coin sales rose 5,500 and silver coin sales rose 828,000.
Below is a sales breakdown for U.S. Mint bullion products with columns offering the number of bullion coins sold on Monday, last week, last month, the month-to-date, and the year-to-date.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Sales Last Week | March Sales | April Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $100 American Platinum Eagle Bullion Coins | 0 | 300 | 10,000 | 600 | 10,600 |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 4,000 | 3,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 116,500 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 18,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 4,000 | 8,000 | 4,000 | 14,000 | 56,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 5,000 | 10,000 | 30,000 | 25,000 | 265,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 3,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 75,500 |
| $1 American Silver Eagle Bullion Coins | 752,500 | 1,050,500 | 5,354,000 | 2,096,000 | 15,975,000 |
| Great Smoky Mountains National Park 5 Oz Bullion Coins | 15,100 | 0 | 12,400 | 17,700 | 30,100 |
