Palladium Alone Among Metals With Weekly Gain

Precious metals declined Friday, guaranteeing weekly losses for all but palladium which edged down from its prior-day record.

Gold for December delivery on Friday shed $7.90, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,499.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"Headline confidence is up, which seems to be the markets’ focus, and with trade war winds blowing in the right direction" there’s more long liquidation in gold, Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific market strategist at AxiTrader, told MarketWatch.

Gold futures lost 1.1% this week after slipping 0.9% last week and sliding 0.5% in the week ended Aug. 30. The yellow metal is 17% higher on the year to date.

In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:

"This week, 17 market professionals took part in the Wall Street survey. A total of 8 voters or 47% called for gold to be higher. Meanwhile, five analysts or 29% said that they see lower prices in the near-term. Four analysts or 24% saw sideways price action next week.

Meanwhile, 1,500 respondents took part in an online Main Street poll. Participation in this week’s survey hit a fresh one-year high. Looking at the results, a total of 914 voters, or 61%, called for gold to rise. Another 346, or 23%, predicted gold would fall. The remaining 240 voters, or 16%, saw a sideways market."

Elsewhere, silver for December delivery tumbled 60.8 cents, or 3.3%, to close at $17.569 an ounce. Silver futures traded 3% lower this week after falling 1.2% last week. Before then, silver prices had surged by a combined 12.7% through four consecutive weekly gains. Silver is 13.1% higher on the year.

In PGM futures on Friday and for the week: 

• October platinum dipped 40 cents, or 0.04%, to $952.20 an ounce, for a weekly loss of 0.7%.

• Palladium for December delivery declined $3.90, or 0.2%, to $1,600.90 an ounce but rallied 3.6% on the week. On Thursday, the precious metal scored a record settlement at $1,604.80.

Both are higher on the year so far with advances of 18.9% for platinum and 33.7% for palladium.

London Precious Metals Prices

London precious metals prices ended mixed on Friday and for the week. In comparing their latest day-over-day PM prices:

• Gold declined $12.10, or 0.8%, to $1,503.10 an ounce.
• Silver fell 4.5 cents, or 0.3%, to $18.145 an ounce.
• Platinum added $8, or 0.8%, to $956 an ounce.

In LBMA weekly results, prices rose 1% for platinum, declined 1.4% for gold, and were unchanged for silver.

US Mint 2019 Bullion Sales

United States Mint bullion performances improved this week from last. In week-over-week comparisons:

• Gold bullion coins climbed by a combined 2,500 ounces after they increased by 2,000 ounces previously. Gold sales this week came entirely from American Gold Eagles. Splits last week included 1,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles and 500 ounces in American Gold Buffalo coins.

• American Silver Eagles rose by 675,000 ounces this week after rising by 11,000 ounces last week.

• Five-ounce America the Beautiful silver coins rose by 2,500 units, or 12,500 ounces. They had been muted in each of the previous two weeks.

Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods. Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.