Gold and silver futures closed higher Wednesday, with the former marking their best close in nearly three weeks.
Gold for April delivery moved up $11, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,241.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the highest since Feb. 11 when gold closed at $1,247.80 an ounce.
"Weak data globally is adding to concerns over a slowdown and that is helping gold," Reuters quoted a bullion trader in Hong Kong.
Gold prices ranged from a low of $1,225.10 to a high of $1,244.80 after slipping 0.3% in the prior session.
Silver for May delivery tacked on 26.6 cents, or 1.8%, to finish at $15.022 an ounce — the highest settlement since Feb. 25. Silver prices traded between $14.77 and $15.05. They lost 1.1% on Tuesday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
April platinum dipped 50 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $936.20 an ounce, ranging from $931.60 to $942.60.
- Palladium for June delivery declined $2.05, or 0.4%, to $515.30 an ounce, trading between $509.55 and $522.25.
London Precious Metals Prices
Earlier fixed London gold and silver prices were mixed. In comparing their levels from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold added $2.70, or 0.2%, to $1,239.20 an ounce.
- Silver fell 17 cents, or 1.1%, to $14.82 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2016
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged for a second straight day following solid gains on Monday. Below is a sales breakdown of United States Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold during varying periods of time.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | This Week | Jan Sales | Feb Sales | Mar Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 6,000 | 9,000 | 89,000 | 67,500 | 0 | 156,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 23,000 | 6,000 | 0 | 29,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 36,000 | 12,000 | 0 | 48,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 25,000 | 25,000 | 145,000 | 100,000 | 0 | 245,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 4,500 | 2,000 | 34,000 | 19,000 | 0 | 53,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 1,073,500 | 736,500 | 5,954,500 | 4,782,000 | 0 | 10,736,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 30,000 | 0 | N/A | 105,000 | 0 | 105,000 |
Nels & Tim –
As you both requested, I posted the only 13 worldwide official registered U.S. Mint silver, gold & platinum bullion version coins “Authorized Purchasers” who can buy the bullion coins listed in this CoinNews article directly from the U.S. Mint as of February 18 in the comments section of the February 27 daily precious metals report here on this coin blog website.
Happy bullion coin collecting/investing Nels & Tim!
-NumisDudeTX