Gold settled lower for the fourth time in five sessions on Monday with safe-havens down as investors returned to riskier bets.
Gold for December delivery slipped $5.90, or 0.5%, to finish at $1,288.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"The strength in the equity market is putting pressure on gold," Frank Lesh, a trader at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago, said in a telephone interview according to Bloomberg News. "It’s clear that the U.S. economy is showing strength, even though the pace is slow."
Gold ranged from an intraday low of $1,287 to a high of $1,296.40. Last week gold prices ended 0.7% lower. The precious metal rebounded on Friday by $12, or 0.9%, after falling for three consecutive sessions.
Slipping for three straight sessions, silver for September delivery lost 14 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $20.23 an ounce. Silver prices traded from $20.20 to $20.48. They fell 1.3% last week.
In PGM futures on Monday:
-
October platinum turned up $3.30, or 0.2%, to $1,466.60 an ounce, ranging from $1,461.30 to $1,471.90.
- Palladium for September dropped $9.45, or 1.1%, to $855.10 an ounce, trading between $853.45 and $870.75.
Last week, platinum declined 1% and palladium fell 1.6%.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals changed modestly with gold and silver down less than 0.1%. In contrasting the London bullion fix prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:
- Gold dipped 75 cents to $1,290.50 an ounce,
- Silver added a penny to $20.35 an ounce,
- Platinum gained $3, or 0.2%, to $1,465 an ounce, and
- Palladium shed $4, or 0.5%, to $867 an ounce
London precious metals fixings logged declines last week that totaled 1.2% for gold, 2.9% for silver, 2.3% for platinum and 1.1% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in August
United States Mint bullion coins entered August sales boards for the first time on Monday. In total ounces, gold coins advanced by 5,500 and silver coins climbed 300,000.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold on Monday, last week, last month, the month so far, and the year to date.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Sales Last Week | July Sales | August Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $100 American Platinum Eagle Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,900 |
| $50 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 5,000 | 1,500 | 26,000 | 5,000 | 229,500 |
| $25 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 6,000 | 0 | 78,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Bullion Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 25,000 | 0 | 385,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Bullion Gold Coins | 500 | 0 | 5,500 | 500 | 117,500 |
| $1 American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins | 300,000 | 335,000 | 1,975,000 | 300,000 | 26,403,500 |
| Great Smoky Mountains National Park 5 Oz Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 500 | 0 | 29,500 |
| Shenandoah National Park 5 Oz Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| Arches National Park 5 Oz Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 1,500 | 0 | 20,000 |
