Precious Metals Surge on Week; US Mint Coin Sales Stronger

0
gold and silver, one bar each
Gold, silver and other precious metals scored strong weekly gains, as did U.S. Mint bullion coins

Precious metals futures surged on Friday, capping a solid week of gains that ranged from 1.7% for gold to 7.9% for platinum. Gold scored a seven-week high.

Gold for December delivery tacked on $11.60, or 1%, to close at $1,155.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the highest since Aug. 21 when prices advanced to $1,159.60 an ounce. Gold has gained on lowered expectations of a Fed rate hike this year, according to analysts.

"There is less of a sentiment in the market that an interest rate hike will take place anytime soon," Reuters quoted Bernard Dahdah, metals analyst at Natixis. "The data that has come out of the U.S. lately hasn’t been very positive."

Gold’s weekly gain marks the third in four weeks, with prices sliding 0.8% last week. The yellow metal trimmed its losses on the year to 2.4%. Looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street survey:

"This week 301 people participated in Kitco’s online survey. Of those participants, 186, or 62%, are bullish on gold next week; 67 people, or 22%, are bearish; and 48 people, or 16% are neutral.

Positive sentiment was also strong among market professionals. Out of 35 market experts contacted, 19 responded, of which 11, or 58%, said they expect to see higher prices next week. At the same time, seven professionals, or 37%, are neutral on gold, and one person, or 5%, sees lower prices."

In other dealings, silver for December delivery added a nickel, or 0.3%, to settle at $15.82 an ounce. Silver prices soared 3.6% on the week after gaining 1% last week. On Wednesday, the precious metal jumped to $16.09 an ounce for a 15-week high. As for the year, silver moved into the black this week. It is 1.4% higher than its last close in 2014 at $15.60 an ounce.

In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:

  • January platinum settled up $25.80, or 2.7%, to $981.40 an ounce. The metal is riding a six-session winning streak.

  • Palladium for December delivery added $5, or 0.7%, to $708.15 an ounce, gaining 1.5% on the week.

For the year, platinum is down 18.9% and palladium is off 11.3%.

London Precious Metals Prices

London precious metals climbed on Friday and for the week. In comparing London bullion prices from Thursday PM to Friday PM:

  • Gold added $11.55, or 1%, to $1,151.55 an ounce.
  • Silver jumped 38 cents, or 2.4%, to $15.99 an ounce.
  • Platinum soared $66, or 7.2%, to $978 an ounce.
  • Palladium surged $29, or 4.2%, to $723 an ounce.

Their weekly gains totaled 1% for gold, 10.8% for silver, 7.2% for platinum and 4.2% for palladium.

US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in October

More United States Mint silver and gold coins sold this week.

U.S. Mint gold sales advanced 24,500 ounces, jumping 69% from last week’s 14,500 ounces. Sales splits include 17,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles compared to 12,000 ounces previously and 7,000 ounces in American Gold Buffalo coins compared to 2,500 ounces previously.

The U.S. Mint limited American Silver Eagle sales this week to 1,075,000 million coins, up from last week’s allocation of 1 million coins. Authorized distributors grabbed all of them by Thursday.

American Silver Eagle sales at 37,129,500 for the year remain on record pace, up 7.6% from the same time in 2014. Last year when sales ended at an annual record totaling 44,006,000, the coins by Oct. 9, 2015 reached sales of 34,501,000. The U.S. Mint also limited Silver Eagle sales last year but not during the summer months.

Below is a listing of United States Mint bullion products with the number of coins sold during varying periods. Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.

US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins)
Friday Sales Last Week This Week / Oct Sept Sales YTD Sales
$50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins 0 9,500 13,500 98,500 533,500
$25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins 0 1,000 2,000 9,000 65,000
$10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins 0 4,000 4,000 20,000 146,000
$5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins 0 10,000 20,000 175,000 850,000
$50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins 0 2,500 7,000 22,000 177,500
$1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins 0 1,000,000 1,075,000 3,804,500 37,129,500
2015 Homestead 5 Oz Silver Coins* 35,000
2015 Kisatchie 5 Oz Silver Coins* 42,000
2015 Blue Ridge Parkway 5 Oz Silver Coins* 45,000
2015 Bombay Hook 5 Oz Silver Coins* N/A 45,000 N/A 45,000 45,000
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments