Precious metals futures on Monday fell as a group for a second straight session. Gold and silver marked fresh milestone lows that reached nearly one year for gold and over seven months for silver.
Gold for August delivery declined $1.50, or 0.1%, to end at $1,239.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The close is the lowest since July 17, 2017, when prices settled at $1,233.70 an ounce.
"Speculative market participants have been betting for the most part on falling gold prices — they have not significantly expanded their net short positions in the past two weeks, however. Gold continues to be sold by ETF investors: last week saw outflows of 9 tons, and 22 tons since the start of the month," MarketWatch quoted Carsten Fritsch and the commodities team at Commerzbank, in a note.
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,238.30 to a high of $1,245.80. They slipped 1.2% last week for their fourth weekly loss in five weeks.
Meanwhile, silver for September edged down less than a half cent to $15.812 an ounce. The settlement is the worst since Dec. 12 when prices closed at $15.668 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $15.76 to $15.90. They dropped 1.6% last week — their fifth straight weekly loss.
In other precious metals futures on Monday:
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October platinum lost $3.90, or 0.5%, to $826.40 an ounce, trading between $820.60 and $836.50.
- Palladium for September delivery dropped $19.30, or 2.1%, to $913.50 an ounce, ranging from $911.20 to $939.80.
Last week they posted respectively losses of 2.2% and 1.6%.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:
- Gold dipped 60 cents, or less than 0.1%, to 1,241.10 an ounce.
- Silver was unchanged at $15.81 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
In LBMA results last week, they logged declines totaling 1.1% for gold, 1.2% for silver, 0.8% for platinum, and 0.3% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2018
United States Mint bullion sales rose by 25,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles and a combined 3,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles.
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 | June | July | 2018 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 2,500 | 6,000 | 21,500 | 15,000 | 102,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 18,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 0 | 48,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 5,000 | 0 | 15,000 | 5,000 | 130,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 5,500 | 6,500 | 11,000 | 64,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 25,000 | 290,000 | 435,000 | 390,000 | 7,212,500 |
| Pictured Rocks 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30,000 |
| Apostle Islands 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30,000 |
| Voyageurs 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 30,000 | 0 | 30,000 |
