Setting palladium aside, precious metals edged lower on Friday, as both gold and silver retreated from their multi-week highs. Nevertheless, they all achieved weekly gains, with the range extending from nearly 2.5% for gold to over 8% for palladium.
Gold for December delivery shed $2.60, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,984.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In the prior session, the yellow metal registered its best settlement since Nov. 6.
"There is a strong potential for gold to continue to rally a bit more but prices have to move a bit lower, before the next leg up in the rally and perhaps test $2,000 level at the same time," Reuters quoted Everett Millman, chief market analyst at Gainesville Coins.
"Data that came out this week cemented the fact that the Fed is likely done with rate hikes, helping gold. Gold’s move will depend on incoming data and market response to the data."
Gold prices advanced by 2.4% this week after having fallen 3.1% last week. Prior to that, gold had registered four straight weeks of increases that had lifted prices by a total of 8.1%. Year-to-date, the precious metal is 8.7% higher.
Looking to the week ahead, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street surveys:
"This week, 12 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Like last week, three experts, or 25%, expected to see higher gold prices next week, but this week only one expert, representing 8%, predicted a drop in price. The overwhelming majority, or 67%, were neutral on gold for the coming week.
Meanwhile, 595 votes were cast in Kitco’s online polls, and market participants were even more optimistic than they were in last week’s survey. 394 retail investors, or 66%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 125, or 21%, expected it would be lower, while 76 respondents, or 13%, were neutral on the near-term prospects for the precious metal."
Elsewhere, silver for December slipped by 8.1 cents, or 0.3%, closing at $23.852 an ounce. On Thursday, silver marked its best settlement since Sept. 1. Silver priced jumped by 7.1% this week after falling 4.3% last week. They are 0.8% lower on the year to date.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
-
January platinum ended down $1.10, or 0.1%, to $901.70 an ounce, resulting in a weekly gain of 6.6%.
- Palladium for December delivery rose by $9.30, or 0.9%, to $1,058.90 an ounce, padding its weekly increase to 8.2%.
When evaluating their performance from the start of the year to the present, platinum has registered a decrease of 16.7%, while palladium has experienced a more substantial loss of 41.1%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
U.S. Mint bullion sales last changed on Thursday, and those gains were the second for this month. Advances included 18,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 1.083 million ounces in American Silver Eagles, and 6,500 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 | November | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,000 | 15,500 | 78,000 | 27,500 | 97,000 | 22,500 | 891,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 2,000 | 13,000 | 7,000 | 4,000 | 99,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 6,000 | 2,000 | 30,000 | 18,000 | 10,000 | 192,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 45,000 | 150,000 | 40,000 | 30,000 | 45,000 | 650,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 3,500 | 6,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 36,500 | 10,000 | 377,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 356,000 | 1,083,000 | 3,124,000 | 2,970,000 | 3,938,000 | 1,439,000 | 23,286,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
Coin News! With buyers fee(%10), currently the winning bid, is $1,001,000. 102 bids so far and 5hrs 45min to place a bid of $920K or more. “1796 Draped Bust Half Dollar 15 Stars Overton 101 PCGS SP-65 (Toned) A major rarity, the finest 15 Stars 1796 Half Dollar known, and finest of just two Specimens graded by PCGS/NGC. Previously in the Knoxville collection. This coin last appeared in auction almost two decades ago. It is worth noting, the only other Specimen, which graded a full two points below this example realized $587,500 in the Pogue auction of 2015.” Just today… Read more »
So the number 1, notable, top price for the “finest 1796 Half Dollar with 15 Stars, graded PCGS Specimen-65”, with buyers fee, closed at a whopping, $1,046,250! Thanks for the heads up on this coin at auction, Longarm! The second Coin, listed this week was the “1955 Lincoln Cent Doubled Die Obverse PCGS MS-65 RD (CAC Green)”. It’s final buy price with fees, was $123,750, which gave it 3rd place in the top 10 notable sales at GC this week. In second place, a coin we didn’t mention was this: “1877 Indian Cent PCGS MS-66+ RD (CAC Green)”. Truly a… Read more »
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