Gold futures settled modestly higher to start the new trading week on Monday, their second straight session with gains.
Gold for December delivery edged up $1, or less than 0.1%, to close at $1,137.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"It increasingly looks like [rate] liftoff could be delayed," MarketWatch quoted Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. "Even if the Fed goes ahead with one increase, a second is likely a long way off. This means that [the U.S. dollar] is likely overvalued and is starting to roll over, which could benefit a number of other currencies, particularly gold."
The precious metal ranged from a low of $1,129.60 to a high of $1,141.60. Attributed to a disappointing U.S. jobs report, gold surged 2.1% on Friday to snap a five-session losing streak. Still, prices declined 0.8% on the week.
Silver for December delivery rallied 45 cents, or 2.9%, to settle at $15.71 an ounce. Silver prices traded from $15.10 to $15.73. They soared 5.2% on Friday and ended the week 1% higher.
In rounding out the precious metals complex:
-
January platinum added $3.40, or 0.4%, to $912.90 an ounce, ranging from $907.30 to $927.50.
- Palladium for December delivery fell $8.40, or 1.2%, to $689.20 an ounce, trading between $684.70 and $713.25.
Last week, platinum fell 4.4% while palladium jumped 4.5%.
London Precious Metals Prices
Earlier fixed London gold and silver prices retreated. In comparing their prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:
- Gold advanced $21.75, or 1.9%, to $1,140.75 an ounce.
- Silver shed 12 cents, or 0.8%, to $14.43 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
Last week, palladium advanced 3.3% while other London bullion prices logged losses of 0.5% for gold, 3.7% for silver and 3.5% for platinum.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in October
United States Mint bullion sales on Monday logged their first October gains. Sales splits include 9,500 ounces in gold coins and 699,000 ounces in silver coins.
The U.S. Mint has limited sales of American Silver Eagles since temporarily running out of them in early July. The agency allocated 1,075,000 for this week and 65% of them sold on Monday. Silver Eagle sales for the year hit 36,753,500 coins — a record pace, up 8.4% through the same time in 2014. Last year when sales ended at an annual record totaling 44,006,000, the coins by this time reached sales of 33,901,000.
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) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Last Week | Sept Sales | Oct Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 5,500 | 9,500 | 98,500 | 5,500 | 525,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 9,000 | 0 | 63,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 2,000 | 4,000 | 20,000 | 2,000 | 144,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 5,000 | 10,000 | 175,000 | 5,000 | 835,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 3,000 | 2,500 | 22,000 | 3,000 | 173,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 699,000 | 1,000,000 | 3,804,500 | 699,000 | 36,753,500 |
| 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 | |||
| 2015 Bombay Hook 5 Oz Silver Coins* | N/A | 45,000 | 45,000 | – | 45,000 |
