Gold notched a second straight day of gains Thursday, returning to its highest settlement in 18 weeks.
Gold for April delivery tacked on $11.50, or 0.9%, to finish at $1,351.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The closing price was the highest since gold ended at $1,352.20 an ounce on Oct. 28.
"The EUR/USD rallied to hit its highest level since late December," said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at FOREX.com, in a note relayed on MarketWatch.
"Correspondingly, the U.S. currency fell even though we finally saw some positive data out of the world’s largest economy as the weekly unemployment claims fell to their lowest since the end of November," he said. "The weaker dollar boosted the greenback-denominated gold and silver."
Gold prices traded from a low of $1,331.30 to a high of $1,352.50. The precious metal on the week so far has rallied $30.20, or 2.3%, and is poised for a fourth weekly gain in five weeks.
Also higher for a second consecutive day, silver for May delivery settled at $21.57 an ounce, advancing 30 cents, or 1.4%. Silver prices ranged from $21.11 to $21.65. The white metal is up 33 cents on the week.
PGMs again extended their winning streaks with platinum rising for a fourth session and palladium up for a sixth. In their breakdowns on Thursday:
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April platinum rose $10.20, or 0.7%, to $1,486.80 an ounce, trading between $1,474.10 and $1,488.50.
- Palladium for June delivery settled up $8.30, or 1.1%, to $781.15 an ounce, ranging from $771 to $785.
London Fix Precious Metals
Earlier fixed London precious metals split with silver lower and the others higher. In contrasting the London fix prices from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM:
- Gold climbed $8.25, or 0.6%, to $1,345.25 an ounce,
- Silver fell 21 cents, or 1%, to $21.11 an ounce,
- Platinum added $3, or 0.2%, to $1,484 an ounce, and
- Palladium rose $2, or 0.3%, to $780 an ounce
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in March
United States Mint bullion sales spread across three products Thursday. Climbing for a second straight day was the one ounce American Buffalo gold coin, up 2,000, and the one-tenth ounce American Gold Eagle, up 5,000. Sales of American Silver Eagles advanced 56,000.
Below is a sales breakdown across U.S. Mint bullion products with columns offering the number of bullion coins sold on Thursday, the week-to-date, last week, in February 2014 and for the year-to-date.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sales | Week-To-Date Sales | Sales Last Week | Sales Last Month | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 5,000 | 22,000 | 85,500 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 15,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 10,000 | 38,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 5,000 | 10,000 | 5,000 | 50,000 | 220,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins | 2,000 | 4,000 | 500 | 12,000 | 57,500 |
| American Silver Eagles | 56,000 | 959,500 | 1,250,000 | 3,750,000 | 9,484,500 |
