Gold and silver futures on Wednesday advanced for a second straight session, lifted by sustained safe-haven demand.
Gold for April delivery tacked on $16.50, or 1.4%, to settle at $1,239.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Traders are looking at anything that gets them off risk, away from volatility, and protects against negative rates," MarketWatch quoted Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault.
"Gold doesn’t yield anything, but that’s 0.4% per year better than benchmark Swiss bonds, and 0.3% better than commercial deposit rates at the European Central Bank," he said. "It also cannot go broke — a truly unique appeal right now."
Gold prices traded from a low of $1,222.40 to a high of $1,246.70. In the previous session, they gained $12.50 or 1%.
Elsewhere, silver for March delivery added 5.7 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $15.297 an ounce. Silver prices ranged from $15.18 to $15.54. On Tuesday, they rose 5.6 cents or 0.4%.
In rounding out the precious metals futures complex:
-
April platinum inched up 20 cents to $943.70 an ounce, trading between $936.50 and $955.60.
- Palladium for March delivery declined $12.75, or 2.6%, to $487.30 an ounce, ranging from $496.05 to $501.65.
London Precious Metals Prices
Earlier fixed London gold and silver prices also moved higher. In comparing their levels from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold rose $29.40, or 2.4%, to $1,250.75 an ounce.
- Silver rose 11 cents, or 0.7%, to $15.32 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2016
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged Wednesday as of 3:10 PM ET. Below is a sales breakdown of United States Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold during varying periods of time.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Sales | Last Week | This Week | Jan Sales | Feb Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 17,500 | 5,000 | 89,000 | 57,500 | 146,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 23,000 | 6,000 | 29,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 6,000 | 2,000 | 36,000 | 10,000 | 46,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 145,000 | 75,000 | 220,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 6,500 | 2,500 | 34,000 | 15,000 | 49,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 926,500 | 985,000 | 5,954,500 | 3,957,000 | 9,911,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 27,500 | N/A | 102,500 | 102,500 |
