Precious metals declined in tandem on Friday, deepening their weekly losses, which ranged from somewhat modest for gold to severe for palladium.
Gold for April delivery gave back $9.20, or nearly 0.5%, to settle at $2,038.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"I think that things are trending lower for the gold price; there is a pretty strong floor support at about $1,960 that I don’t expect to see gold go below,” Reuters quoted Everett Millman, chief market analyst at Gainesville Coins.
Gold prices recorded a 0.7% weekly decline, taking back a portion of last week’s 1.8% gain. Year-to-date, gold is down 1.6%.
Elsewhere, silver for March delivery shed 4.2 cents, or 0.2%, finishing at $22.594 an ounce. Silver prices lost 0.9% this week after dipping 0.3% last week, leaving them 6.2% lower for the year.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
-
April platinum fell by $15.80, or 1.8%, to end at $878.20 an ounce, resulting in a 2.6% weekly loss.
- Palladium for March delivery declined by $22.80, or 2.6%, to end at $869.30 an ounce, thereby extending its fall for the week to 8.4%.
When assessing their performance in the first six weeks of the year, platinum has shown a 13% drop, whereas palladium has incurred a 21.6% loss.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2024
The published U.S. Mint bullion sales last changed on Wednesday, with gains including 5,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 850,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles, and 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 | Week / February | January | 2024 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 16,500 | 3,000 | 87,500 | 90,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 3,000 | 0 | 25,000 | 25,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 6,000 | 0 | 46,000 | 46,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 25,000 | 20,000 | 115,000 | 135,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 8,000 | 500 | 46,500 | 47,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 850,000 | 4,900,000 | 5,750,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
When Kaiser was still alive, I told him that palladium’s chart indicated it could fall in price to around $600 or lower. A classic head and shoulders pattern is forming which would put it around $650. I believe it was around $2500 per ounce at that point. As much as I like the design of the Palladium coins, I’m glad I never bought one. I’m not interested in giving the government any more of my money for taxes, whether voluntary or not.
I think it’ll have it’s run. No mention of rampant catalytic converter theft recently so it might go back up. I can’t believe the drop, also no explanation as to why. But you can bet the mint offering is gonna be way expensive. Also I doubt the RP dropped in price either. Plus, it is early, plenty of years left for it to make a run. Cycles come and go. Maybe that is why female mint director. If anyone understands cycles it would be her.
I don’t think it’ll have a significant run as long as all we hear about is climate change, climate change, climate change and of course green this and green that. With the way things are heading, the doj will be keeping files on folks buying combustible engines before long. Go electric and save the planet (forget about all the mining that’s occurring in the Congo please.) I’m planning on watching the SB, but only because Usher is performing at halftime. It is fitting that a black superstar would be performing because it is black history month after all. Please keep… Read more »
I wanted to buy a US Mint palladium coin but the secondary prices are not dropping like the spot market. At least I haven’t found one yet. I am sure the LCS will pay spot, but they are selling for $3k.
If you see a palladium proof for sale under $1,800 post it here.
Thanks
I looked too, no luck. Problem is, if you do find one really cheap or near melt/spot it might be one of the counterfeits mike hadn’t had the chance to pick up yet. And don’t forget, the grading companies also said they identified several counterfeit coins that they initially proofed years before. Could be a way to make certain coins even more rare, but who knows. I wonder if they reslab them and give same serial number but ID as counterfeit. Huh. Ain’t that weird. Coins now require an ID to be valuable and to exist, but people complain about… Read more »
Since mint not dropping price with market levels (hmmm wonder if there is a lawsuit in that, class action, because I’m pretty sure the metals for this year’s releases have been purchased and costs already solidified, but yet they wait til day of to price based on market value of the day, or highest of the week, then again charging quadruple for silver or over 50% for gold should cover any loss they would have sustained if the metals dropped by a few bucks, heck the 10th oz coin would still bring huge per oz profit) I am guessing they… Read more »
Writers must be hung over from super bowl. No 11A.M. fluff pieces. Maybe they are waiting for mint to explain the reason behind the 2 week hiatus of reporting. Although 21 days if you count it. Released the 4th. Then on 11th horrible sales. And on 18th even worse sales. And no update til the 8th. I had 2 scenarios in my head for the super bowl. 1. Was Mr Irrelevant would be scripted to win by having a second half blowout after a close 1st half. (San Fran did fire kaepernick, and McCaffrey is a great guy) 2. Patrick… Read more »