Gold futures dropped on Wednesday for a sixth session in a row and settled at their lowest point in more than seven weeks.
Gold for June delivery declined $5.40, or 0.4%, to close at $1,223.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the weakest since April 4 when gold ended at $1,219.30 an ounce.
"I think gold prices will touch the $1,200 level in the coming few days," Reuters quoted Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong’s Wing Fung Financial Group. "The change in rate hike expectations is still the major theme, but after the end of June the overall sentiment on the rate hike will be pretty much done."
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,217.70 to a high of $1,230.20. They are down 2.3% so far this week.
Sister metal silver closed higher for the first time since Friday with silver for July delivery edging up less than a penny to $16.261 an ounce. Silver prices ranged from $16.18 to $16.38. In the prior session, they ended at their lowest level since April 18.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
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July platinum fell $9.40, or 0.9%, to $994.80 an ounce, trading between $991.10 and $1,007.10.
- Palladium for June delivery declined $7.55, or 1.4%, to $530.40 an ounce, ranging from $523 to $538.95.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold fell $16.25, or 1.3%, to $1,220.60 an ounce.
- Silver declined 6.5 cents, or 0.4%, to $16.205 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
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged Wednesday. Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. 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 | Mar Sales | Apr Sales | May Sale | 2016 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 18,500 | 8,500 | 29,000 | 93,500 | 47,000 | 326,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 1,000 | 6,000 | 4,000 | 40,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 14,000 | 8,000 | 74,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 30,000 | 5,000 | 75,000 | 55,000 | 45,000 | 420,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 3,000 | 2,000 | 7,000 | 19,500 | 15,000 | 94,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 970,000 | 861,000 | 4,106,000 | 4,072,000 | 3,889,000 | 22,803,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105,000 |
| 2016 Cumberland Gap 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 11,000 | 0 | 0 | 64,000 | 11,000 | 75,000 |
