Precious metals futures ended slightly lower Wednesday, following gains on Tuesday which came after losses on Monday.
Gold for April delivery fell $1.50, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,325.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Safe-haven gold may find support if the stock markets were to come under pressure again, and more so if the dollar were to also fall further in the event of retaliation to Trump’s protectionist policies," MarketWatch quoted Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst with FOREX.com.
"In the short-term, however, a lot will depend now on the Fed’s inflation and rate hike projections next week," Razaqzada added.
Gold futures traded from a low of $1,321.70 to a high of $1,330.50. They advanced 0.5% on Tuesday and slipped 0.2% on Monday.
Silver for May delivery shed 9 cents, or 0.5%, to end at $16.537 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $16.51 to $16.67. They gained 0.6% on Tuesday and lost 0.4% on Monday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
April platinum declined $5.80, or 0.6%, to $961.50 an ounce, trading between $961.20 and $974.90.
- Palladium for June delivery fell $6.85, or 0.7%, to $984.75 an ounce, ranging from $982.55 to $1,002.10.
London Precious Metals Prices
In comparing earlier fixed London gold and silver prices from Tuesday PM to Wednesday PM:
- Gold rose 80 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $1,323.55 an ounce.
- Silver added 9.5 cents, or 0.6, to $16.605 an ounce.
LBMA platinum and palladium prices are available on the LBMA’s website with a delay of midnight.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2018
U.S. Mint bullion sales were unchanged. Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday | Last Week | This Week | February | March | 2018 Sales | |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 | 0 | 20,000 |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,500 | 0 | 5,000 | 2,500 | 43,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,000 | 0 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 95,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,000 | 0 | 2,500 | 1,000 | 27,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 165,000 | 270,000 | 942,500 | 435,000 | 4,612,500 |
| Pictured Rocks 5 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20,000 | 0 | 20,000 |
“What goes up, must come down,
Spinning wheel got to go ’round…”
— Blood, Sweat and Tears
Don’t know when! But i* hear the call of *platinum! It sounds like it’s saying buy*me-buy*me*soon! Does *platinum think it’s going to take over *gold once again? It would have too rise* $368.50 to break even with *gold at this moment! That’s a nice *tidy profit for *platinum, if i* could buy some, & sit on it, and watch it hatch over time*, sure beats any *bank! Now i* hear the *Lone*Ranger calling *Hi*Hoe*Silver*, *my ass was getting sore from sitting on my* silver! So i* put it in the ink*u*bay*ter for now, i*ll sea* if i* can scrap a… Read more »
Joe Brown,
Buy buy!
Bye bye.
Old Collector