Gold and silver rallied Friday, padding exceptional weekly gains and lifting their settlements to the highest in 11 months and 1.5 months, respectively.
On Friday, gold for April delivery tacked on $50.50, or 2.6%, to close at $1,973.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was gold’s best since April 18.
"Gold is surging on fears that more bad banking news could appear over the weekend and hopes that the Fed will pause its rate hikes next week," Reuters quoted Tai Wong, an independent metals trader based in New York.
Gold prices soared 5.7% on the week after gains of 0.7% last week and 2.1% in the week ending March 3. They are 8.1% 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, 22 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Among the participants, nine analysts, or 41%, were bullish on gold in the near term. At the same time, five analysts, or 23%, were bearish for next week and eight analysts, or 36%, saw prices trading sideways.
Meanwhile, 707 votes were cast in an online Main Street poll. Of these, 445 respondents, or 63%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 169, or 24%, said it would be lower, while 93 voters, or 13%, were neutral in the near term."
Elsewhere, silver for May delivery jumped 77 cents, or 3.6%, to finish at $22.462 an ounce. The settlement was the highest since Feb. 2. Silver prices scored a 9.5% weekly increase after dropping last week by 3.5%. They are 6.6% lower on the year.
In PGM prices on Friday and for the week:
-
April platinum rose $1.50, or 0.2%, to end at $978.60 an ounce, for a 1.7% weekly gain.
- Palladium for June delivery declined $23.20, or 1.7%, to end at $1,386.10 an ounce, trimming its weekly increase to 1.8%.
The pair remain lower on the year so far with losses of 9.6% for platinum and 22.9% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
United States Mint bullion sales this week picked up up gold coins. In week-over-week comparisons:
- American Gold Eagles: 41,500 ounces against 12,500 ounces,
- American Gold Buffalos: 14,500 ounces compared to 4,500 ounces, and
- American Silver Eagles: 0 ounces against 450,000.
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 | January Sales | February | March | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,500 | 39,500 | 118,000 | 41,500 | 50,000 | 209,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 37,000 | 8,000 | 1,000 | 46,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 8,000 | 62,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 84,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,000 | 0 | 115,000 | 85,000 | 10,000 | 210,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,500 | 14,500 | 59,000 | 19,500 | 19,000 | 97,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 450,000 | 0 | 3,949,000 | 900,000 | 450,000 | 5,299,000 |
Gold now at $2,007.40 per ounce…I’m loving it! Although it probably means I won’t be buying the 1/10th ounce AGE later this month. This Mint will probably want $500 for it!
I digress, however it’s all, financially and monetarily interrelated. Perhaps I’m incorrect, however would this “Icky”, “Trutfle” shuffle, be happening if the resulting statistics, numbers/data affecting the formula had a resultant negative outlook or prospect? I’d be amazed if this didn’t somehow paint a better picture when, “calculating and statically coming up and out” with reports? Pretty big Corporations/Companies or at least recognized names. I know virtually nada, regarding stocks, bonds, CD’s, Treasuries; however I’d like to think I have at least a few “scents”? LOL “There will also be a reshuffle in some sectors of the S&P 500, with… Read more »
Trickle down just means somebody is peeing on you and telling you it’s raining
The mint still wants $2350 for the 2022 Palladium coin or about $900 to press it over spot! I’m sorry, but in this environment we are in, cash is king.
“Please remember, to keep your heads, hands, arms as well as any other body part, inside the vehicle at all times until the ride comes to a complete and total “STOP”! “Just one day after the biggest U.S. banks gave it a $30 billion infusion, First Republic Bank was in talks to sell a piece of itself to other banks or private equity firms, three people with knowledge of the process said, an indication that the imperiled lender is far from conquering its troubles. The deals under discussion, which would involve selling new shares, represent a fresh level of desperation… Read more »
Kaiser, I think you’re giving too much credit to the “leadership” of these recent banks being taken over by the government. If you replaced “greed” with “stupidity” you’d be on the mark. SVB bought long term treasury bonds and was forced to sell them (at a substantial loss) as their VC accounts were being liquidated. As Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary said “The idiots were in charge and they had no risk assessment manager.” Also, why does Mary Daly still have a job as SF Fed President? O’Leary is right.
Again, Kaiser Wilhelm nails it! Holy smoke, what an appropriate and funny comic! So funny as, i can also see where the scene is flipped and we see a “POW” Blam” or “CRUNCH” being added to these characters, tummies of course! Just loosen them up like when the regulation were loosened by the Fed and or Treasury, in 2018, contributing to this mess.
That’s ok, for now Kaiser Wilhelm. This creates a safety net, that makes sure that I don’t sell my last of 2, 2018 APdE’s, which I’d rather keep anyhow. Pretty cool holding and admiring a “hefty”, Merc! The Reverse is spectacular, not to be confused with “Spegtakular” of YT notoriety. Due to debt and rising premiums, what little gold I have is not safe and at risk of being liquidated. Really don’t want to, however the allure of getting debt back to zero and not paying these continually rising interest rates is weighing heavily.
Those are indeed beautiful coins. Wish I had one but just can’t justify the premium the mint wants. The reverse might be my favourite eagle design ever. What a shame all the great designers are deceased.
Indeed, Craig, absolutely the greatest US Mint designers of all time, from America’s Golden Age – Adolph A. Weinman and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Sir Kaiser, I was referring to the “Renaissance Era” in American coinage, the most vibrant and creative era in U.S. numismatics, which began the process of redesigning the nation’s coinage, a process that evolved from 1907 through 1921 and eventually changed the design of all denominations of U.S. coins. It all began with the “Genesis Letter” addressed by Theodore Roosevelt to Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw… My dear Secretary Shaw: I think our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. Would it be possible, without asking the permission of Congress, to employ a man like St. Gaudens to give… Read more »
Looks like a little bungalow. Perhaps King Charles will gift it to Prince George as a birthday present.
Why is Our eagles head down soon damn low? What does that signify? My guess is We are to be subservient to, who I don’t know. Looks to me like a weak representation. I’m out of this silver and gold coin conundrum. Collectors like Rick tomaska have Illegally obtained machinery and acutrmon to produce New coins. Bombastic!
I don’t know how much debt you have, but there are several 0% cards out there. Discover is great for 0% offers regularly. Citi does the same thing or offer 0.99% I don’t know if you have navy fed but they have the lowest rate card. Usually the fee to balance xfer is 3 to 5%. Sometimes 0% if switching to lower rate instead if 0%. It can be a life saver. Those reward cards cost for what you get. Sometimes they are worth it. But it is good to balance no frills with decent cash back with travel rewards… Read more »
Many can’t pay every month, but better than high interest loan. It saved me many times. As my dad would say, I came into this world with nothing, and I still have most of it left. Sometimes you can’t get that loan. Hopefully the info gets him to the point he can pay every month
One word the U.S. Mint never uses in its printed catalogs or on its website for its “Numismatic Program” products is “investment,” due to legal reasons.
Instead, they use “mementos,” “gifts,” “collections,” “historical,” etc.
One of the reasons is that a very large majority of the Mint’s products issued in “modern” times (basically since 1965), have been horribly bad investments in raw (ungraded) original Mint packaging. For example, you can buy some U.S. Mint 5-coin clad Proof sets for around $5 in OMP!
NumisdudeTX
Amen! I have always believed that U.S. Mint Proof coin sets & Unc. coin sets that I can buy from coin dealers for about $10 or less are a great value. And like the situation you basically refer to Major D., if I ever send in the ones that I think might grade high at PCGS or NGC, I might make enough profit to retire!
NumisdudeTX
Silver and gold price explodes higher on original fear of missing out.
Giddyup “Silver Rider”!
Lots of money piling into big tech and gold with the banking crises. Gold is up 5.58% this week and 9.1% YTD. The other metals not so much. Silver is up 8.99% this week but still -5.41% YTD, Platinum up 0.71% but -9.42% YTD, Palladium was up 1.72% but still the big loser YTD at -20.94%. The curious thing to me is what is happening in the bank CD offerings. Until this week there were hundreds of offerings at 5%+ for all maturity dates. Today my brokerage has zero new issues for 6mo, 9mo, 1yr, 18mo, and 2yr and only… Read more »
If that were the issue, I would expect they would just lower the rates on their offerings not stop offering anything at all.
Perhaps it is just an issue in the brokered CD market or just my brokerage as the secondary market has disappeared as well.
It will be interesting to see what happens at the next meeting of the FED. Perhaps everyone is waiting to see what they are going to do next week.
I could be wrong but I’ve always thought that banks used deposits as the seed for the money they loaned to borrowers (mortgages, etc.) and offered depositors rates 2-3% less than what they charge borrowers to make their profit. At the same time they are in competition with Treasuries for deposits. With treasuries paying upward of 4% they have had to raise their rates to compete.
Perhaps with lending rates so high there is a deficit in borrowers?
Well I think I’ve solved my curiosity about the disappearance of new CD issues. Last week the yield on the 2yr treasury dropped precipitously which coincided with the decline in CD offerings.
Today the yield is rebounding and the banks are once again slowly increasing the offering of new CD’s.
I should clarify that by saying the banks probably never stopped issuing new CD’s it’s just that I think my brokerage does not list bank CD offerings that fall below their US Govt. Money Market yield which is currently 4.2%.