Gold futures climbed higher on Monday for a third session in a row. Gains over the three sessions have been modest, however, totaling just $2.60.
Gold for April delivery added 80 cents to settle at $1,153.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Speculative investors are quite clearly out of love with gold at the present time and as long as we have this meteoric rise in the U.S. dollar going on, it’s difficult to see a change in gold’s fortunes," Reuters quoted bullion broker Sharps Pixley CEO Ross Norman.
Gold ranged from a low of $1,149.30 to a high of $1,163.30. Gold prices fell 1% last week.
Silver for May delivery tacked on 12 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $15.62 an ounce. The white metal traded between $15.49 and $15.76. Silver prices last week declined by 2%.
In rounding out the precious metals complex:
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April platinum shed $7.30, or 0.7%, to $1,107.90 an ounce, ranging from $1,105 to $1,121.50.
- Palladium fell $8.60, or 1.1%, to $780.10 an ounce, trading between $779.50 and $794.40.
Last week, both metals declined. Their losses stacked to 3.8% for platinum and 3.6% for palladium.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals mostly retreated. In comparing London bullion Fix prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:
- Gold slipped $1.25, or 0.1%, to $1,150.75 an ounce,
- Silver added 8 cents, or 0.5%, to $15.58 an ounce,
- Platinum lost $2, or 0.2%, to $1,113 an ounce, and
- Palladium shed $2, or 0.3%, to $789 an ounce.
Last week, the metals logged declines of 2% for gold, 3.1% for silver, 4.4% for platinum and 3.9% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in March
United States Mint bullion sales advanced with gold coins gaining 6,500 ounces and silver coins rising 412,500 ounces. These increases follow last week totals that hit the highest since the week after the 2015-dated coins launched in January.
In a year-to-date milestone, 2015 American Silver Eagles crossed the 10 million mark to 10,395,500 for the year. That is more than the annual totals in 21 prior years going back to the series start in 1986. The pace is not yet record level, though. In record year 2014 when Silver Eagle sales ended at 44,006,000, the coins by March 16, 2014 reached higher to 10,825,000.
The listing of U.S. Mint bullion products below show the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Last Week | February Sales | March Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 4,000 | 14,000 | 12,500 | 20,500 | 84,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 24,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 2,000 | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 40,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 5,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 | 45,000 | 210,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 1,500 | 2,000 | 12,000 | 5,000 | 51,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 412,500 | 844,000 | 3,022,000 | 1,843,500 | 10,395,500 |
| 2015 Homestead 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 8,000 | 20,000 | 8,000 | 28,000 |
