Precious metals split Tuesday with platinum and palladium advancing as gold and silver declined.
Gold in early trading came within 20 cents of hitting $1,600 an ounce. By day’s end, it notched a fourth straight session loss and closed at a more than six-month low.
Gold futures for April delivery settled down $5.30, or 0.3%, to $1,604.20 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The precious metal traded as low as $1600.20 an ounce and reached an intraday high at $1,618.80 an ounce. Gold’s closing price was the lowest since it marked $1,602.40 an ounce on August 14.
"Investors continue to buy racier assets such [as] equities rather than gold and silver," MarketWatch quoted Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at GFT Markets.
U.S. markets closed Monday for Presidents Day. Gold prices declined 3.4% last week.
Silver tracked gold, falling nearly five times more in percentage. Silver for March delivery declined 42.7 cents, or 1.4%, to $29.422 an ounce. It traded between $29.175 and $30.150. Last week the white metal plummeted 5.1%.
PGM’s were the bright area in precious metals.
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April platinum advanced $19.80, or 1.2%, to $1,697.50 an ounce, ranging from $1,676.50 to $1,704.70.
- Palladium for March delivery surged $11.00, or 1.5%, to $764.15 an ounce, trading between $750.70 and $767.35.
Last week, palladium inched 0.2% higher while platinum fell 2.2%.
Precious Metals in London
In London, silver was unchanged while other precious metals logged only modest movements. In contrasting the Monday PM to Tuesday PM London Fix prices:
- Gold shed $3.00, or 0.2%, to $1,607.75 an ounce,
- Silver stayed at $30.00 an ounce,
- Platinum lost $7.00, or 0.4%, to $1,685.00 an ounce, and
- Palladium gained $4.00, or 0.5%, to $763.00 an ounce
US Bullion Coin Sales in February
U.S. Mint bullion sales advanced across every type of coin. In total, U.S. Mint distributors ordered 13,500 ounces of gold bullion coins and 487,500 ounces of silver bullion coins. The gold bullion coin tally on Tuesday surpassed last week’s entire total of 10,500 ounces. Bullion sales by product type follow.
| American Eagle and Buffalo Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday Sales | Last Week | Weekly Sales | Feb Sales | YTD Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 3,500 | 7,000 | 3,500 | 41,500 | 166,000 |
| $25 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 2,000 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 21,000 |
| $10 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 4,000 | 0 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 32,000 |
| $5 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins | 35,000 | 10,000 | 35,000 | 65,000 | 175,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins | 4,500 | 2,000 | 4,500 | 7,500 | 80,000 |
| American Eagle Silver Coins | 454,500 | 664,000 | 454,500 | 2,098,000 | 9,596,000 |
| America the Beautiful 5 Oz. Silver Bullion Coin Sales | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday Sales | Last Week | Weekly Sales | Feb Sales | All-Time Sales | |
| 2012 El Yunque National Forest 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 1,600 | 100 | 1,600 | 2,100 | 24,000 |
| 2012 Chaco Culture National Historical Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 1,200 | -400 | 1,200 | 1,800 | 21,800 |
| 2012 Acadia National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25,400 |
| 2012 Hawai’i Volcanoes 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| 2012 Denali National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 |
| 2011 Olympic National Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104,900 |
| 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 2,200 | 45,700 |
| 2011 Chickasaw Park 5 oz. Silver Bullion Coins | 3,800 | 2,000 | 3,800 | 3,740 | 39,400 |
| TOTAL | 6,600 | 3,700 | 6,600 | 9,840 | 301,200 |
The Chaco Culture silver coin total declined 400 last Monday. Negative adjustments were previously made across the Chickasaw silver coin.
All bullion figures above are in the number of coins sold. Calculate total ounces by using the bullion coin’s weight.
