Gold and silver futures closed lower Thursday after three days of gains, pressured as the U.S. dollar rebounded. Gold slipped from a more than two-week high, trimming gains so far this week to about 1%.
Gold for December delivery dipped $2.40, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,267.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Slight early gains were erased in morning trading when the outside markets turned bearish — the U.S. dollar index rallied and crude oil prices sold off," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Metals Inc., said in a report.
"A downbeat weekly jobless claims report did briefly push gold prices to their daily highs in early morning trading. However, the bearish outside markets on this day trumped the U.S. economic data, regarding impacting gold prices," Wyckoff added.
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,265.50 to a high of $1,275.90. In the previous session, they closed at their highest level since Oct. 3.
Silver for December shed 11.4 cents, or 0.7%, to $17.549 an ounce. Silver futures traded between $17.45 and $17.75.
In other precious metals dealings:
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January platinum declined $8.10, or 0.9%, to $935.40 an ounce, ranging from $930.90 to $948.30.
- Palladium for December delivery lost $2.65, or 0.4%, to $632.85 an ounce, trading between $626.30 and $641.10.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London bullion prices from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM:
- Gold added $2.60, or 0.2%, to $1,271.65 an ounce.
- Silver fell 9 cents, or 0.5%, to $17.60 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 products advanced by 4,000 ounces in American Eagle and Buffalo gold coins and by 500,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles.
Silver Eagle sales in October to date at 3,425,000 coins are the highest for a month since May. They more than double each of the monthly totals in July, August and September. Gains on Thursday lifted the coin’s year to date tally to 34,000,500, which is higher than annual Silver Eagle sales in all but five of the past thirty years. However, the level is down 12.3% from the 38,759,000 sold through the same time in 2015. Last year’s edition reached an annual sales record of 47 million coins.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion coins 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) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sales | Last Week | This Week | Sept Sales | Oct Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coins* | – | 20,000 | ||||
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 3,000 | 15,500 | 19,000 | 79,000 | 76,500 | 641,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 3,000 | 2,000 | 5,000 | 6,000 | 62,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 2,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 16,000 | 12,000 | 128,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 25,000 | 10,000 | 85,000 | 50,000 | 750,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 500 | 4,000 | 9,000 | 17,500 | 21,000 | 170,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 500,000 | 695,000 | 1,325,000 | 1,675,000 | 3,425,000 | 34,000,500 |
| 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 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 36,500 |
| 2016 Theodore Roosevelt 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 800 | 800 | 2,000 | 2,600 | 32,100 |
