Aside from palladium, precious metals declined on Friday. They all gained on the week, however, with silver, platinum and palladium scoring exceptionally sharp increases.
Gold for February delivery on Friday lost $10.80, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,831.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold prices rose 0.8% this week after rising 1.1% last week. On Wednesday, they hit their highest settlement (at $1,843.20 an ounce) since Nov. 19. They are 0.2% higher 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 18 Wall Street analysts participated in Kitco News’ gold survey. Among the participants, 16 analysts, or 89%, called for gold prices to rise next week. At the same time, two analysts, or 11%, were bearish on gold in the near term. There were no neutral votes this week.
Meanwhile, A total of 1134 votes were cast in online Main Street polls. Of these, 801 respondents, or 71%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 197, or 17%, said lower, while 136 voters, or 12%, were neutral."
Elsewhere, silver for March delivery fell 39.6 cents, or 1.6%, to close at $24.32 an ounce. Still, silver prices soared 6.1% this week. They advanced 2.3% last week. On Thursday, silver marked its best finish since Nov. 19. The precious metal has rallied 4.2% through the first three weeks of 2022.
In PGM futures on Friday and for week:
-
April platinum lost $15.70, or 1.5%, to end at $1,035.10 an ounce, but logged a 7.3% weekly gain.
- Palladium for March delivery rose $30.60, or 1.5%, to end at $2,104.30 an ounce, for a 12% weekly gain.
Both are now well higher on the year so far with advances of 7.1% for platinum and 10.1% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2022
The United States Mint published no bullion sales gains this 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 / This Week | Last Week | December | 2021 Sales | 2022 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 14,000 | 41,000 | 1,115,500 | 87,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 18,000 | 1,000 | 95,000 | 44,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 14,000 | 2,000 | 162,000 | 52,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 35,000 | 0 | 490,000 | 150,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,000 | 10,500 | 350,500 | 42,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 500,000 | 0 | 28,275,000 | 3,501,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 | 0 |
| $25 American Eagle 1 Oz Palladium Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8,700 | 0 |
| Tuskegee Airmen 5 oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52,900 | 0 |
