Precious metals prices advanced Friday — ahead of the U.S. holiday break on Monday, padding weekly gains for gold, silver and palladium while trimming platinum’s loss on the week. Weekly increases for the three metals were their second in a row. U.S. markets are closed Monday in observance of Independence Day.
Gold for August delivery rose $6.50, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,783.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the highest since June 23.
"The precious metal may have found support in the renewed virus woes that have hurt sentiment in Asia, though subdued long-term Treasury yields may also be propping up gold prices," MarketWatch quoted Raffi Boyadjian, senior investment analyst at XM.
Gold futures traded 0.3% higher this week after climbing 0.5% last week. Before then, however, gold had logged three straight weekly losses that had reduced its price by a combined 7.2%. The yellow metal is 5.9% lower on the year to date.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"Kitco’s gold price survey results from this week showed that out of the 13 participating analysts on the Wall Street side, 69.2% were bullish on prices next week, while the other 30.8% were neutral. There were no bearish votes this time around.
On the Main Street side, out of the 256 participating retail investors, 49.6% were bullish on prices next week, 25.8% were bearish, and 24.6% were neutral."
Elsewhere, silver for September delivery surged 40.1 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $26.501 an ounce. Silver futures traded 1.6% higher this week after rising 0.5% last week. They are 0.3% ahead on the year.
In other precious metals futures on Friday and for the week:
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October platinum added $6.80, or 0.6%, to $1,087.70 an ounce, but posted a 1.4% weekly loss.
- Palladium for September delivery added $23.60, or 0.9%, to $2,792.50 an ounce, for a 5.9% weekly gain.
Both are higher on the year so far with increases of 0.8% for platinum and 13.8% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2021
For a third straight week, the United States Mint published no American Eagle bullion sales. 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) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday / This Week | Last Week | March Sales | April Sales | May | June | 2021 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 55,500 | 38,500 | 20,500 | 4,000 | 430,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 20,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 56,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 55,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 150,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 33,500 | 11,000 | 44,000 | 27,500 | 193,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 4,087,000 | 1,053,000 | 0 | 0 | 13,106,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 35,000 | 0 | 40,000 | 0 | 75,000 |
| Tuskegee Airmen 5 oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | N/A | 50,000 | 2,900 | 0 | 52,900 |
