Gold, silver and platinum futures ended higher on Monday, the first trading day of the new week, month and quarter.
Gold for June delivery rose $19.60, or 1.5%, to settle at $1,346.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the strongest since last Monday, March 26.
"Last week we saw GDP revised up 2.9 percent (versus expected 2.7 percent) which can be another indicator that U.S. and global growth is doing well. Combine that with a trade war and you could have inflation concerns supporting gold," Reuters quoted Jeff Klearman, portfolio manager at GraniteShares
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,329 to a high of $1,349.20. They dropped 1.7% last week, trimming their first quarterly gain to 0.7%.
Silver for May delivery jumped 40.4 cents, or 2.5%, to close at $16.672 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $16.30 to $16.68. The fell 1.9% last week, for a 5.1% quarterly decline.
In other precious metals dealings on Monday:
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July platinum tacked on $3.90, or 0.4%, to $936.50 an ounce, trading between $935 and $944.50.
- Palladium for June delivery declined $16.30, or 1.7%, to $927.50 an ounce, ranging from $924.30 to $952.70.
London Precious Metals Prices
London markets shut down for Good Friday and Easter Monday holiday. The most recent PM price changes from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM had:
- Gold down $8.60, or 0.7%, to $1,323.85 an ounce.
- Silver down 17.5 cents, or 1.1%, to $16.28 an ounce.
- Platinum down $3, or 0.3%, to $936 an ounce.
- Palladium down $7, or 0.7%, to $970 an ounce.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2018
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged. Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Last Week | February | March | 2018 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 20,000 | 0 | 20,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 2,500 | 43,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 95,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 3,500 | 0 | 27,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 285,000 | 942,500 | 915,000 | 5,092,500 |
| Pictured Rocks 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 10,000 | 30,000 |
Precious metals appear to be SPRINGing off to a good start. 😀
The Royal Mint has just released their first 1/10 ounce platinum Britannia bullion coin, as well as, the Austrian Mint / first 1/25 ounce platinum Philharmonic bullion coin.
Both beautiful representations of their traditional 1 ounce bullion design. The Royal mint also changed the queens effigy for their 1/10 ounce gold Britannia coin for this year 2018 / a first as well.
Great fractional sizes / more affordable way for young investors to enter the precious metals market.
Precious metal prices have dropped / great time to buy folks.
Mouse
To those of us for whom whole ounces of precious metal coins are simply far too much to swallow, fractionals are the happy answer.
I focus my efforts on fractional sizes for gold/platinum. The coin has to be something special for me to buy a 1oz platform. I purchased 10 1/10 ounce gold bullion coins recently / one from every major world mint – same design as their 1oz bullion just a fraction of the cost. I was able to get 10 coins apposed to 1.
All coins add up over time. For me, my favorite size of coin is the 1/4 ounce, perfect weight in the hand and platform for a design…and a fraction of the cost.
1/10 ounce of gold (or any other precious metal) is the only size for me. My “difficulty” is that with my standing preference for collector-grade over bullion it means that my 1/10 oz is inevitably going to end up being more expensive for me to purchase per unit than yours is for you. That’s because I only acquire to collect and not as a means of investing, so there is that.