Precious metals continued their downward march Wednesday. Gold futures logged a fifth straight session decline and closed at a seven-week low.
Gold for December delivery settled down $7.90, or 0.7%, to $1,106.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The close was the lowest since Sept. 15 when prices ended at $1,102.60 an ounce. The precious metal traded from a low of $1,105.60 to a high of $1,122.30. Gold prices have turned down 3.1% this week.
"The last few weeks of price action in gold has underscored that gold is almost entirely dependent on Fed policy speculation," said analysts in The 7:00’s Report according to MarketWatch.
"If the consensus of analysts, economists and traders are dovish, we should be long gold," they said. "If that changes, as it quickly did last week, and turns to favor the hawks, we should be short gold near term — simple as that."
Falling for a third session in a row, silver for December delivery lost 18 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $15.06 an ounce. The close was the lowest since Oct. 1 when silver ended at $14.51 an ounce. Silver prices ranged from $15.05 to $15.33. They are down on the week by 3.3%.
In rounding out the precious metals complex:
-
January platinum fell $7.40, or 0.8%, to $954.80 an ounce, trading between $953 and $977.
- Palladium for December delivery dived $20.60, or 3.2%, to $623.40 an ounce, ranging from $621 to $651.65.
London Precious Metals Prices
Earlier fixed London gold and silver prices also declined. In comparing their prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold fell $8.40, or 0.8%, to $1,114.70 an ounce.
- Silver slipped 12 cents, or 0.8%, to $15.26 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in October
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged as of 3:11 p.m. ET. Below is a listing of U.S. 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) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | This Week / November | Oct Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 3,500 | 1,500 | 26,000 | 547,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 4,000 | 67,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 146,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 5,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 905,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 500 | 500 | 10,500 | 181,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 856,500 | 763,500 | 3,788,000 | 40,606,000 |
| 2015 Homestead 5 Oz Silver Coins* | Sold Out | 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* | 45,000 | ||||
