Gold and silver futures advanced on Tuesday following an extended U.S. holiday weekend for Labor Day. The pair notched settlement highs spanning from about 4-1/2-months for silver to 11-1/2-months for gold.
Gold for December delivery gained $14.10, or 1.1%, to settle at $1,344.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The close is the highest since Sept. 22 when prices ended 20 cents higher.
"Gold shot up quite a bit in the past few days so if you bought it then you’ve made a nice profit and you could take some off the table," Reuters quoted Robin Bhar, head of metals research at Societe Generale.
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,331.10 to a high of $1,345.50. They rose 2.5% last week for their second straight weekly increase.
Elsewhere, silver for December delivery tacked on 12.5 cents, or 0.7%, to finish at $17.941 an ounce. The settlement is the best since April 20 when prices ended at $18.018 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $17.83 to $18.07. They rallied last week by 4.5%.
In other precious metals futures on Tuesday:
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October platinum ended flat at $1,009 an ounce, trading between $1,002.50 and $1,018.
- Palladium for December delivery dropped $20.10, or 2.1%, to $957 an ounce, ranging from $968 to $997.50. On Friday, they ended at $977.10 an ounce for their strongest close since February 2001.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Monday PM to Tuesday PM:
- Gold added $2.45 or 0.2%, to 1,335.55 an ounce.
- Silver gained 8 cents, or 0.5%, to $17.88 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2017
Logging their first gains of the week and in September, United States Mint bullion sales rose with splits of 2,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles and 25,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods. Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday / Sept | Last Week | July | August | YTD | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 2,000 | 500 | 13,500 | 6,500 | 164,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 29,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 54,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 30,000 | 15,000 | 305,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 500 | 6,000 | 3,000 | 75,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 25,000 | 600,000 | 2,320,000 | 1,025,000 | 15,603,500 |
| 2017 Effigy Mounds 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35,000 |
| 2017 Frederick Douglass 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| 2017 Ozark Riverways 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| 2017 Ellis Island 5 Oz Silver Coin | 500 | 40,000 | N/A | 39,500 | 40,000 |
