Precious metals divided on Tuesday with gold and silver lower and platinum and palladium higher.
Gold for December delivery declined $5.10, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,102.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Investors continue to look ahead to the Fed’s decision this week on interest rates.
"Traders and market participants seem to be frozen in some strange cryogenic world, while they wait for the Fed to bring them back to life," Bloomberg News quoted David Govett, head of precious metals at broker Marex Spectron Group in London. "I really don’t think we are going to see any major moves before the announcement."
Gold prices traded from a low of $1,101.50 to a high of $1,108.50. They advanced 0.4% on Monday.
Down for a third straight session, silver for December delivery shed 4 cents, or 0.3%, to close at $14.33 an ounce. Silver prices ranged from $14.24 to $14.41.
In PGM futures on Tuesday:
-
October platinum added $2.80, or 0.3%, to $958.20 an ounce, trading between $949.40 and $963.50.
- Palladium for December delivery rallied $12.65, or 2.2%, to $600.45 an ounce, ranging from $578.65 to $603.85.
London Precious Metals Prices
Earlier fixed London gold and silver prices were mixed for a second day in a row. In comparing London bullion prices from Monday PM to Tuesday PM:
- Gold edged up $1.15, or 0.1%, to $1,105.95 an ounce.
- Silver lost 8 cents, or 0.6%, to $14.35 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are displayed on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight after the setting of the prices each day.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in September
United States Mint bullion sales advanced by 10,500 ounces in gold coins and 236,500 ounces in silver coins.
This week’s two-day gains in gold coins total 39,500 ounces — 10,000 ounces more than last week’s five-day haul.
Sales of American Silver Eagles are maxed for the week. The U.S. Mint has restricted sales of the coins since temporarily running out of them in early July. The agency allocated 809,500 for this week and the last batch went out Tuesday. Silver Eagle sales this year at 34,304,500 coins are on a record pace, up 18.6% through the same time last year. In 2014 when sales ended at a record 44,006,000, the coins by Sept. 15, 2014 reached sales of 28,921,000.
Below is a listing of United States Mint bullion products with the number of coins sold during varying periods. Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday Sales | Last Week | This Week | August Sales | Sept Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 7,000 | 21,500 | 28,000 | 78,500 | 69,000 | 490,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 1,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 8,000 | 6,000 | 60,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 2,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 24,000 | 8,000 | 130,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 10,000 | 25,000 | 35,000 | 130,000 | 105,000 | 760,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 1,500 | 4,500 | 5,500 | 20,000 | 15,500 | 164,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 236,500 | 1,000,000 | 809,500 | 4,935,000 | 2,054,500 | 34,304,500 |
| 2015 Homestead 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 35,000 | ||||
| 2015 Kisatchie 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 42,000 | ||||
| 2015 Blue Ridge Parkway 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 45,000 | ||||
