Most precious metals declined on Friday, adding to their weekly losses. Gold’s weekly drop contrasts with its record close from last Friday, while silver marked a double-digit percent fall after ending last week at a 6.5-month high. Moreover, their weekly declines were also their first in four weeks.
Gold for February delivery gave back $31.90, or 1.6%, to settle at $2,014.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the lowest since Nov. 27.
"It was a textbook reaction in gold in response to the stronger jobs and consumer sentiment data, with the metal falling, dollar and yields rising," Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, told MarketWatch.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 199,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.7%, the Labor Department said on Friday.
Gold’s loss was its fourth this week, with prices falling 3.6% from a week ago when it settled at an all-time high of $2,089.70 an ounce. Year-to-date, gold is 10.3% higher.
Down for a fifth day following six consecutive gains, silver for March delivery tumbled by 78.3 cents, or 3.3%, closing at $23.276 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since Nov. 14. Silver prices sank this week by 10%, in contrast to last Friday when they registered their highest settlement since May 9 at $25.857 an ounce. Silver prices are down 3.2% year to date.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
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January platinum rose by $7.80, or 0.9%, to end at $919.80 an ounce, reducing its weekly loss to 1.7%.
- Palladium for March delivery fell by $29.60, or 3%, to finish at $951.60 an ounce, padding its loss on the week to 5.8%.
When evaluating their performance from the start of the year to the present, platinum has demonstrated a 15.1% decline, while palladium has experienced a much more substantial drop of 47.1%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
U.S. Mint bullion sales last changed on Wednesday, Nov. 29, and those gains were the third for this month. Advances included 15,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 939,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles, and 1,500 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 / This Week | Last Week | August | September | October | November | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 12,500 | 78,000 | 27,500 | 97,000 | 35,000 | 904,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 13,000 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 101,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 30,000 | 18,000 | 14,000 | 196,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,000 | 150,000 | 40,000 | 30,000 | 55,000 | 660,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 36,500 | 11,500 | 379,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 939,000 | 3,124,000 | 2,970,000 | 3,938,000 | 2,378,000 | 24,225,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
