Precious metals futures gained in the mid-week trading session on Wednesday. Gold returned to an almost two-year high while silver logged its strongest close in more than 21 months. Platinum and palladium, meanwhile, each advanced by more than 3%.
Gold for August delivery tacked on $9, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,326.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the highest since July 11, 2014 when prices closed at $1,337.40 an ounce.
"The gold bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a four-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Metals Inc., said in a daily report. "Gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at last week’s high of $1,362.60. Bears’ next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at last week’s low of $1,252.80."
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,313.30 to a high of $1,331. They slipped 0.5% in the prior session.
Rising for the sixth time in seven sessions, silver for September delivery rallied 51.8 cents, or 2.9%, to close at $18.407 an ounce. The settlement was the highest since Sept. 18, 2014 when prices ended at $18.52 an ounce. Silver futures traded between $17.84 and $18.58. They rose 0.6% on Tuesday after sliding 0.3% on Monday.
In rounding out the precious metals futures complex:
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October platinum settled up $32.90, or 3.4%, to $1,013.50 an ounce, ranging from $980.20 to $1,015.70.
- Palladium for September delivery gained $20.60, or 3.6%, to $590.55 an ounce, trading between $568.15 and $591.35.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold added $11.80, or 0.9%, to $1,321.50 an ounce.
- Silver added 64 cents, or 3.6%, to $18.21 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 posted gains of 3,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles and 27,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles.
The U.S. Mint is limiting this week’s sales of American Silver Eagles to 2,837,500 coins. Bullion distributors ordered 23.4% of them through Wednesday. 2016 Silver Eagles are running at a record pace with sales of 25,975,500 coins, marking a 19.2% increase over those sold through same time in record-breaking year 2015.
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 | Last Week | This Week | Apr Sales | May Sale | June Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 3,000 | 13,500 | 10,000 | 93,500 | 64,500 | 59,500 | 403,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 3,000 | 46,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 6,000 | 0 | 14,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 86,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 55,000 | 60,000 | 60,000 | 495,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 3,000 | 1,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 13,500 | 111,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 27,000 | 517,000 | 663,000 | 4,072,000 | 4,498,500 | 2,562,500 | 25,975,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105,000 |
| 2016 Cumberland Gap 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64,000 | 11,000 | 0 | 75,000 |
| 2016 Harpers Ferry 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64,000 | 11,000 | 34,200 | 34,200 |
With silver spot closing at over $18 this week, look for the US Mint to raise its silver coin prices, even though last year when silver hit over 6-year lows a number of times the Mint didn’t lower its silver coin prices one cent!
-NumisDudeTX