Precious metals futures kicked off the new trading week on Monday with gains that ranged from 0.4% for gold to 1.5% for platinum. Gold’s increase was a second in a row, and the yellow metal scored a two-week high.
Gold for August delivery added $4.50 to settle at $1,247.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The close was the highest since Monday, May 23.
"The gold bulls have regained the overall near-term technical advantage," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Metals Inc., said in a report. "Gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,275.00."
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,242.10 to a high of $1,251.30. They advanced 2.2% last week, their first weekly increase in four weeks, boosted by a report for May that showed the U.S. economy added the fewest number of jobs in more than 5-1/2 years. As recently as Thursday, gold settled at a more than 14-week low.
Elsewhere, silver for July delivery rose 8.2 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $16.447 an ounce. Silver prices ranged from $16.36 to $16.55. They climbed 0.6% last week for their first weekly advance in five weeks.
In rounding out the precious metals complex:
-
July platinum added $14.60, or 1.5%, to $996.50 an ounce, trading between $985.10 and $998.
- Palladium for September delivery turned up $7.65, or 1.4%, to $557 an ounce, ranging from $550.30 to $559.80.
Both metals also gained last week, platinum by a 30-cent smidgen and palladium by 1.9%.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:
- Gold added $3.50, or 0.3%, to $1,244 an ounce.
- Silver jumped 30 cents, or 1.9%, to $16.40 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
Last week, gains included gold by 2% and palladium by 1.5% while losses totaled 1.2% for silver and 0.5% for platinum.
US Mint Bullion Coin Sales in 2016
U.S. Mint bullion sales rose by 8,500 ounces in gold coins and by 814,500 ounces in silver coins.
The latter included sales of the new silver coin commemorating Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia, the third of five 2016-dated America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Bullion Coins. Its first-day sales of 33,000 coins is the slowest of the three so far, with second depicting Cumberland Gap National Historical in Kentucky opening at 48,000 coins (now at 75,000 coins) and the first featuring Shawnee National Forest in Illinois beginning with 41,800 coins (now at 105,000 coins for the highest amount since the Glacier National Park coin from 2011).
Earlier on Monday, the Mint said it is limiting this week’s sales of American Silver Eagle to 1,415,500 coins. The U.S. Mint’s network of bullion distributors ordered 45.9% of them to start the week. 2016 American Silver Eagles are running at a record pace with sales of 24,133,000 coins, representing a 34.7% increase over those sold through same time in record-breaking year 2015.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold during varying periods of time.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday Sales | Last Week | Apr Sales | May Sale | June Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 7,000 | 17,000 | 93,500 | 64,500 | 16,500 | 360,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 2,000 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 0 | 43,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 0 | 0 | 14,000 | 10,000 | 0 | 76,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 10,000 | 10,000 | 55,000 | 60,000 | 10,000 | 445,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 500 | 5,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 3,500 | 101,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 649,500 | 650,500 | 4,072,000 | 4,498,500 | 720,500 | 24,133,000 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105,000 |
| 2016 Cumberland Gap 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 64,000 | 11,000 | 0 | 75,000 |
| 2016 Harpers Ferry 5 Oz Silver Coins | 33,000 | 0 | 64,000 | 11,000 | 33,000 | 33,000 |
Extraneous apr/may carried over into the HF line.