Precious metals futures climbed in tandem on Friday but not for the week with gold, silver and palladium slipping slightly. Gold’s weekly loss was its first in six weeks.
Gold for February delivery tacked on $5.90, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,333.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Gold is shaking off an upside bounce to the dollar and looking at the possibility of a government shutdown," MarketWatch quoted Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago.
Gold futures edged down 0.1% this week after five straight weekly gains lifted prices by a combined 6.9%. On Wednesday, they settled at $1,339.20 an ounce — their strongest price since Sept. 8. The yellow metal is 1.8% higher so far this year.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street survey:
"Out of the 17 market professional who took pay in the Wall Street gold survey, 41.2% voted for gold to rise next week, 35.3% of the respondents said gold is likely to fall, and 23.5% voted for prices to trade sideways.
In comparison, Main Street poll, which is comprised of 845 Kitco readers, was much more bullish, with 61.8% of the participants calling for higher prices next week, 28.9% projecting lower levels, and 9.3% remaining neutral."
Elsewhere, silver for March delivery climbed 8.2 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $17.036 an ounce. Silver futures shed 0.6% this week after sliding 0.8% last week. Before then, the precious metal had logged four straight weekly gains for a combined 9.2% increase in prices. Silver is also down 0.6% through the first three weeks of the year.
In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:
-
April platinum added $12.90, or 1.3%, to $1,020.10 an ounce, for a 2.4% weekly increase.
- Palladium for March delivery rose $5.10, or 0.5%, to $1,098.40 an ounce, but declined 0.6% on the week. They closed at an all-time high on Wednesday at $1,109.70 an ounce.
The two are higher on the year so far with gains of 8.7% for platinum and 3.5% for palladium.
London Precious Metals Prices
London precious metals prices were mixed on Friday and for the week. In comparing final prices from Thursday to Friday:
- Gold gained $2.75, or 0.2%, to $1,334.95 an ounce.
- Silver fell 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $17.04 an ounce.
- Platinum rose $8, or 0.8%, to $1,011 an ounce.
- Palladium added $5, or 0.5%, to $1,112 an ounce.
As for the week in LBMA precious metals prices, silver declined 0.5% while the other metals made gains reaching 0.6% for gold, 2% for platinum and 1.3% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2018
United States Mint bullion coins posted a lower week of sales, as expected, compared to last week when the array of newly 2018-dated coins launched.
Gold coins rose by 8,000 ounces this week after rising by 63,500 ounces last week. Splits included 5,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles against 45,000 ounces previously, and 2,500 ounces in American Gold Buffalos compared 18,500 ounces last week.
American Silver Eagle sales climbed by 250,000 coins this week after moving up by 2,520,000 coins last week.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Last Week | This Week | December | 2017 Sales | 2018 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 1,000 | 27,000 | 3,500 | 38,000 | 228,500 | 30,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 12,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 37,000 | 14,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 24,000 | 0 | 4,000 | 64,000 | 24,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 5,000 | 60,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 395,000 | 70,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 500 | 18,500 | 2,500 | 14,000 | 99,500 | 21,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 2,520,000 | 250,000 | 742,000 | 18,065,500 | 2,770,000 |
On the subject of the shut down, this could be the ”first shutdown” under a single party to have employees ”threatened” with a furlough, for an example, 48,000 out of 88,000 *Treasury employees ”will” be put on furlough.
Don’t worry Joe there are plenty of Puerto Ricans coming there in droves that would love to work for the Treasury, after all they are “AMERICANS”??????
You got that right Sam, all our relatives came from all around Gods globe or whom knows where else at one time or another to be an *American or they just didn’t have to go anywhere, our country worked out a deal to let their patch of land be part of *America, or for that matter, if you believe or not, the ”planet wars” or maybe all the world nations can live on the same planet in peace, if the space aliens don’t mind, i* would say my favorit martion & mork will be all right with it, but Drarth… Read more »
i guess they would call the planets *New America tho.