Gold futures dropped on Thursday for a second day in a row while silver marked its first loss in six sessions, sliding from a 10-month high.
Gold for June delivery lost $21.80, or 1.8%, to settle at $1,226.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold saw pressure as the rally in stocks and the U.S. dollar continued.
"The market is now focused on equities and gold is taking a back seat for the short-term," Bloomberg News quoted Bob Haberkorn, a senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago. "The market is back in risk-on mentality and that’s putting pressure on gold."
Gold prices ranged from a low of $1,225.80 to a high of $1,245.90. They slipped 1% on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the yellow metal closed at its best level — $1,260.90 an ounce — since March 17.
Silver for May delivery declined 15.2 cents, or 0.9%, to close at $16.173 an ounce. Silver prices traded between $15.92 and $16.27. In the previous session, they marked their highest settlement since June 3.
In PGM futures on Thursday:
-
July platinum fell $10.10, or 1%, to $992.90 an ounce, ranging from $985.50 to $1,001.80.
- Palladium for June delivery advanced $18.40, or 3.4%, to $560.90 an ounce, trading between $535.10 and $561.85.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM:
- Gold declined $11.90, or 1%, to $1,233.85 an ounce.
- Silver added 15 cents, or 0.9%, to $16.13 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in 2016
Sales of U.S. Mint gold coins moved up by 4,000 ounces, lifting their total so far this week to 36,500 ounces — the most since 38,500 ounces sold the week ended Jan. 22.
The U.S. Mint limited sales of American Silver Eagles this week to 1,036,000 coins, which included the 36,000 coins left over from last week’s allocation of 1,042,500 coins. On Wednesday, bullion distributors claimed the last of this week’s supply. The Silver Eagle’s cumulative sales total for this year is at 17 million coins, or 26% more than through the same time in record year 2015.
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) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sales | Last Week | This Week | Mar Sales | Apr Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 3,000 | 17,500 | 27,000 | 29,000 | 45,500 | 231,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 33,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 6,000 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 60,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 5,000 | 20,000 | 10,000 | 75,000 | 30,000 | 350,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 500 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 12,000 | 72,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | N/A | 1,006,500 | 1,036,000 | 4,106,000 | 2,157,500 | 17,000,000 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105,000 |
May spot gold drop precipitously for the next 4 trading days so the issue price of the 2016-W Winged Liberty Head gold dime is very low!
-NumisDudeTX
The central Bank of Russia has been adding tons of gold to its reserves recently & now has the world’s sixth largest gold reserves. Interesting!
-NumisDudeTX