Precious metals futures changed little Thursday and were mixed overall with gold and palladium higher and silver and platinum lower. Gold closed at an 18-day high.
Gold for February delivery added $1, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,270.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the highest since Dec. 4.
"Despite the strength in broad equity averages, spot gold has remained resilient throughout 2017, trading largely in a $100 range (between $1,200 and $1,300), and logging a year-to-date gain," MarketWatch quoted Shree Kargutkar, portfolio manager, at Sprott Asset Management. "By contrast, gold equities have lagged the metal as demonstrated by the 5.11% gain for gold mining equities and an actual decline of 0.29% for a junior gold mining equities. This presents an opportunity for investors."
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,266 to a high of $1,271.80. They rose 0.4% on Wednesday, dipped 0.1% on Tuesday and climbed 0.6% on Monday.
Elsewhere, silver for March delivery shed 3.6 cents, or 0.2%, to close at $16.239 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $16.14 to $16.31. They gained 0.8% in the previous session — ending at their best level since Dec. 4, declined 0.3% on Tuesday, and added 0.9% on Monday.
In other precious metals futures Thursday:
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January platinum declined $1.80, or 0.2%, to $919.70 an ounce, trading between $913.90 and $922.70.
- Palladium for March delivery added $5.05, or 0.5%, to $1,029.65 an ounce, ranging from $1,019.05 to $1,031. The close is the strongest since February 2001.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM:
- Gold was unchanged at 1,264.55 an ounce.
- Silver declined 4 cents, or 0.3%, to $16.145 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
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged as of 3:10 p.m. ET. 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) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | Last Week | This Week | November | December | YTD | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1 Oz Palladium Coin* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 28,000 | 8,000 | 9,500 | 36,000 | 226,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 3,000 | 0 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 37,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 0 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 64,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 15,000 | 0 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 395,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,500 | 2,500 | 2,000 | 14,000 | 99,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 622,000 | 0 | 385,000 | 742,000 | 18,065,500 |
| 2017 Effigy Mounds 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35,000 |
| 2017 Frederick Douglass 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| 2017 Ozark Riverways 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| 2017 Ellis Island 5 Oz Silver Coin* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40,000 |
| 2017 George Rogers Clark 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32,400 | 0 | 32,400 |
