On Friday, the prices of most precious metals remained relatively stable, with all of them except gold experiencing slight declines. Gold recorded its third consecutive gain, reaching yet another nearly three-month high. When considering the entire week, only silver showed a decrease in value.
Gold for December delivery inched up $1.10, or 0.06%, to settle at $1,998.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. For a third day, it was gold’s highest settlement since July 31.
"The bigger story here is about the prospect for additional safe haven buying activity, which will occur if there is an escalation in the Middle East," Reuters quoted Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities.
Gold’s gains over the three days were modest, as were the declines on Monday and Tuesday. As a result, gold prices posted only a slight weekly increase, rising by 0.2% and gently padding their year-to-date advance to 9.4%.
Looking to the week ahead, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street surveys:
"This week, 11 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Six experts, or 54%, expected to see higher gold prices next week, while three analysts, or 27%, predicted a price drop, and two others, or 18%, were neutral on gold for the coming week.
Meanwhile, 602 votes were cast in the online polls. Of these, 395 retail investors, or 66%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 126, or 21%, expected it would be lower, while 81 respondents, or 13%, were neutral about the near-term prospects for the precious metal."
Falling for a fifth straight session, silver for December declined by 2.1 cents, or 0.09%, ending Friday at $22.887 an ounce. Silver prices posted a 2.6% weekly loss, nearly erasing the 2.7% gain from the previous week. As of year-to-date, silver is down by 4.8%.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
-
January platinum declined by $3.20, or 0.4%, to end at $905.80 an ounce, reducing its weekly increase to 0.08%.
- Palladium for December delivery fell by $12.60, or 1.1%, closing at $1,130.20 an ounce and trimming its weekly gain to 1.7%.
When assessing their performance from the start of the year until the present, platinum has experienced a decrease of 16.4%, while palladium has faced a more substantial decline of 37.1%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
U.S. Mint bullion sales last changed on Monday, with reported gains totaling 9,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 1,019,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles, and 4,500 ounces in American Gold Buffalos.
The table below presents a breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products sold, with columns indicating the number of coins sold (not total ounces) during different time periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Last Week | This Week | August | September | October | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 24,000 | 7,500 | 78,000 | 27,500 | 93,000 | 865,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 13,000 | 4,000 | 92,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 30,000 | 18,000 | 182,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 15,000 | 0 | 150,000 | 40,000 | 30,000 | 605,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,500 | 4,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 33,500 | 364,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 751,000 | 1,019,000 | 3,124,000 | 2,970,000 | 3,306,000 | 21,215,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
Gold is above $2,000 again. Will wonders never cease.
Not familiar with that one. Maybe if you hum a few notes, maybe I will or maybe I won’t know it.
We’ve had our disagreements but I wish only the best for you MajorD! Get better soon.
Wish you all the best Major D. Hope you’ll be back when you’re able. Always look forward to your insight.
I wish you the best of luck, Major D. I also hope to see you return and hopefully soon, I have very much appreciated your presence here and the coin information you provide us all regularly.