Precious metals tumbled Friday, padding their weekly losses, as U.S. jobs data for July came in better than expected and pressured safe havens. Gold ended the day at an almost four-month low.
Gold for December delivery lost $45.80, or 2.5%, to settle at $1,763.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the weakest since gold ended April 14 at $1,736.30 an ounce.
"The job numbers are hitting gold because they blew away expectations, so the market is anticipating that the Fed’s taper date could be brought forward with an announcement in September and the actual tapering in early January most likely," Reuters quoted Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures in Chicago.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from 5.9%, the Labor Department said on Friday.
Gold prices gave back 3% this week after rising 0.9% last week. They are 7% 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:
"This week 15 Wall Street analysts participated in Kitco News’ gold survey. Among the participants, 13, or 87%, called for gold prices to fall next week; simultaneously, only two analysts, or 13%, expect to see sideways trading in the near term.
Meanwhile, 1,128 votes were cast in online Main Street polls. Of these, 603 respondents, or 53%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 305, or 27%, said lower, while 220 voters, or 20%, were neutral on the price."
Elsewhere, silver for September delivery sank 96.6 cents, or 3.8%, to close at $24.326 an ounce. Silver futures traded 4.8% lower this week after rising 1.2% last week. The metal has now posted a fifth weekly loss in six weeks, and is down on the year by 7.9%.
In PGM futures on Friday and for the week
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October platinum fell $33.50, or 3.3%, to finish at $972.20 an ounce, for a hefty 7.3% weekly drop.
- Palladium for September delivery fell $25, or 0.9%, to end at $2,630.10 an ounce, for a 1% weekly decline.
The two are dived on the year so far with platinum 9.9% lower and palladium 7.2% higher.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2021
United States Mint bullion sales this week compared to last week are stronger for gold coins and weaker for silver coins. In week-over-week comparisons:
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Sales of American Gold Eagles rose 17,000 ounces after increasing 10,000 ounces last week.
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Sales of American Buffalo gold coins increased 3,000 ounces after gaining 500 ounces last week.
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Sales of American Silver Eagles climbed 612,500 ounces after rising 760,000 ounces last week.
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 | Last Week | This Week / August | May | June | July | 2021 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 6,000 | 15,500 | 20,500 | 158,000 | 49,500 | 649,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15,000 | 10,000 | 56,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30,000 | 0 | 86,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 40,000 | 15,000 | 0 | 90,000 | 40,000 | 295,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 500 | 3,000 | 44,000 | 27,500 | 14,500 | 211,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 760,000 | 612,500 | 0 | 2,800,000 | 3,104,000 | 19,623,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40,000 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 |
| Tuskegee Airmen 5 oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,900 | 0 | 0 | 52,900 |
Mike Unser –
Why did you stop covering the London PM spot prices of the precious metals in your daily
(M-F) precious metals articles?
After all, it is the London PM “Spot” prices of silver, gold, platinum, palladium that we use for buying & selling precious metals items daily around the world, & not the precious metals futures prices you report on here…
Thanks greatly!
NumisdudeTX
It basically comes down to licensing.
Historical LBMA prices are available without the licensing/contract/tracking hassles but their use is delayed an entire day.
Hello Mr. Unser. What is the rationale by which share links are selected for discussion group inclusion on the CoinNews.net site? Thanks for your attention.
We do use “anti-spam” software that blocks attempted abuse before we even see the message. It’s caught nearly 320,000 spam messages in the last year. In short, a link should provide value to the discussion at hand. There can’t be deception to where a link leads, and we don’t like comments that try to buy/sell something directly from/to other readers. I don’t mind self-promotional links, frankly, provided that the person commenting offers real value to others. I also don’t mind links to outside numismatic articles (Coin World, CoinWeek, Numismatic News, Coin Update, etc.) or numismatic resources. Generally, they should relate… Read more »
Mr. Unser,
Thanks for your prompt and thorough reply.
At the risk of being considered a nuisance, please verify that we’re discussing the same thing, to wit, the icons/links that appear when one rolls over the “share” link sideways carat next to our names in the discussion groups.
I’ve become obsessively curious as to why 2 of the 3 icons correspond to Russian sites (along with Twitter). If you review the recent 2-coin AGE set comment thread you’ll find several images among the Kaiser and my discussion.
Warmest Regards.
Ahh… nope, I missed what you were referencing. Thanks!
We just turned off the “share” link by the names. It was a newer addition apparently to the discussion module which has sharing options for “Facebook, Twitter, Google, Disqus, WordPress.com, VK and OK Social Networks.”
Plus, I’ll stop bugging the kindly and patient Kaiser about it. Bonus, like “free” shipping from the Mint (after 3 orders, and when one can actually obtain a desired coin).
Mike Unser –
A belated & big “Thank You!” for your response to my question, and for keeping us all informed.
NumisdudeTX