Gold futures closed lower Thursday, posting their sixth loss in seven sessions and marking a two-week low.
Gold for December delivery declined $8.10, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,318 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the lowest since Sept. 1 when the yellow metal ended at $1,317.10 an ounce.
"There’s fear of the unknown as the gold market overall is looking at whether the Fed will move or not, and there’s a small window for them to do it," Bloomberg News quoted Tim Evans, the chief market strategist at Long Leaf Trading Group Inc. in Chicago. "We’ve been going through this cycle of whether Fed will raise rates and what the impact will be."
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,312.10 to a high of $1,332.50. In the previous session, they edged up 0.2%.
Also lower for the sixth time in seven sessions, silver for December delivery lost 2.5 cents, or 0.1%, to close at $19.041 an ounce. Silver futures traded between $18.87 and $19.28. On Wednesday, they climbed by 0.5%.
In rounding out precious metals futures trading:
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October platinum dropped $7.10, or 0.7%, to $1,033.80 an ounce, ranging from $1,026.70 to $1,044.60.
- Palladium for December delivery added a dime, or less than 0.1%, to $656.60 an ounce, trading between $652.50 and $662.20.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London bullion prices from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM:
- Gold declined $10.95, or 0.8%, to $1,310.80 an ounce.
- Silver fell 8 cents, or 0.4%, to $18.96 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 2016
United States Mint bullion sales registered gains of 7,000 ounces in American Gold Eagles and 1,500 ounces in American Gold Buffalo coins.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold during varying periods Products with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Sales | Last Week | This Week | Aug Sales | Sept Sales | 2016 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coins* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 20,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins | 5,500 | 14,500 | 10,000 | 50,000 | 29,500 | 515,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coins | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 54,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins | 2,000 | 6,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 108,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coins | 5,000 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 60,000 | 40,000 | 655,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coins | 1,500 | 3,500 | 1,500 | 9,000 | 6,000 | 137,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 170,000 | 640,000 | 1,280,000 | 950,000 | 29,850,500 |
| 2016 Shawnee 5 Oz Silver Coins* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 105,000 |
| 2016 Cumberland Gap 5 Oz Silver Coins* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 |
| 2016 Harpers Ferry 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,900 | 0 | 36,100 |
| 2016 Theodore Roosevelt 5 Oz Silver Coins | 0 | 1,500 | 1,000 | 27,500 | 2,500 | 30,000 |
We’ll forego gold at the present time. The ‘dealers’ must be having conniptions in trying to sell.
Buy low, sell high. Any positive return is a good thing.