Gold And Silver End Week At More Than Three-Month Lows

Precious metals futures fell Friday, increasing their weekly losses. Gold and silver closed the day at more than three-month lows.

Gold for December delivery shed $3.50, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,462.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the weakest since Aug. 2.

Gold futures dropped 3.2% this week after three straight weekly gains that had boosted prices by 1.5%. The yellow metal saw pressure as investors preferred riskier bets.

"For gold investors, it could have been worse, but bias is still towards downside," MarketWatch quoted Jeff Wright, executive vice president of GoldMining Inc. "Next week could be choppy, and I think gold will retest this week’s lows."

In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:

"This week, 13 market professionals took part in the Wall Street survey. Four analysts or 31% said they see higher prices next week. Eight analysts, or 61%, predicted gold would fall. One analyst, or 8%, saw a sideways market or else were neutral.

Meanwhile, 991 respondents took part in an online Main Street poll. A total of 482 voters, or 49%, called for gold to rise. Another 331, or 33%, predicted gold would fall. The remaining 177 voters, or 18%, saw a sideways market."

Elsewhere, silver for December delivery fell 18.7 cents, or 1.1%, to finish at $16.823 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since Aug. 6.

Silver futures this week plunged $1.23, or 6.8%, after three consecutive weekly wins that had lifted prices by 50.8 cents, or 2.9%. They are now 8.3% higher on the year.

In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:

• January platinum lost $20.90, or 2.3%, to end at $893.10 an ounce, for a 6.4% weekly decline.

• Palladium for December delivery tumbled $69.20, or 3.9%, to close at $1,708.60 an ounce, for a 4.2% weekly loss. As recently as a week ago Wednesday, Oct. 30, palladium logged a record settlement of $1,792.10 an ounce.

Both metals still remain well ahead on the year so far with increases of 11.6% for platinum and 42.7% for palladium.

London Precious Metals Prices

London gold and silver prices also ended lower on Friday and for the week. In comparing their latest day-over-day PM prices:

• Gold declined $20.10, or 1.4%, to $1,464.15 an ounce.
• Silver plummeted 72 cents, 4.1%, to $16.81 an ounce.

In LBMA weekly results, gold fell 3% and silver dropped 7.2%.

US Mint 2019 Bullion Sales

United States Mint bullion sales this week included 1,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles and 165,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles. Last week, the agency’s bullion sales were limited to 167,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles.

Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods. Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.