Gold and silver logged 3 1/2-month lows Wednesday, although the declines were modest compared to their sharp drops on Tuesday.
Lower for a fourth straight session, gold for December delivery shed $1.10, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,268.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the weakest since June 23 when gold finished at $1,263.10 an ounce.
"The stronger dollar, a break of key technical levels, speculative positioning which was very long, weak physical Chinese and Indian demand all contributed," Reuters quoted Carsten Menke, an analyst at Julius Baer. "We could see more speculators head for the exit. You could see a downward spiral, and the big risk is it spills over into the physical market."
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,268.60 to a high of $1,279.40. They are off 3.7% for the week so far, with the bulk of the losses on Tuesday when gold settled down by 3.3%.
Lower for a third day in a row, silver for December delivery lost 8 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $17.695 an ounce. Like for gold, the close is the lowest since June 23. Silver futures traded between $17.58 and $18.04. They sank 5.8% in the previous session and gave back 1.8% on Monday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
January platinum declined $13.90, or 1.4%, to $976.60 an ounce, ranging from $974.30 to $999.30.
- Palladium for December delivery dropped $23.95, or 3.4%, to $675.60 an ounce, trading between $675 and $702.60.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London bullion prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold declined $13.90, or 1.1%, to $1,269.40 an ounce.
- Silver fell 94 cents, or 5%, to $17.80 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
U.S. Mint bullion sales were unchanged as of 3:12 p.m. Eastern Time. Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold during varying periods Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | This Week / Oct | Sept Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coins* | – | 20,000 | |||
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 24,000 | 8,500 | 79,000 | 573,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 5,000 | 57,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 6,000 | 0 | 16,000 | 116,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 85,000 | 705,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 4,500 | 2,000 | 17,500 | 151,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 370,000 | 530,000 | 1,675,000 | 31,105,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 105,000 | |||
| 2016 Cumberland Gap 5 Oz Silver Coins* | – | 75,000 | |||
| 2016 Harpers Ferry 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 200 | 36,300 |
| 2016 Theodore Roosevelt 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | -500 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 30,500 |
Now is the time to buy buy buy ladies and gentleman. December spike is on the way.
Controlled flight into terrain – pull up, pull up!
(After the gold commemorative Walking Liberty half is reseased, of course.)