Precious metals finished lower for a second straight session Wednesday. Their losses ranged from 1% for palladium to 1.6% for platinum.
Gold for December delivery settled down $25.50, or 1.4%, to $1,763.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Gold prices are sharply down in afternoon U.S. dealings Wednesday. This afternoon’s FOMC statement from the Federal Reserve saw the U.S. central bank announce it will begin tapering its bond-buying program in November, by $15 billion… Markets showed little reaction to the FOMC statement, as traders and investors had pretty much dialed in what the Fed would do today, and that the tenor would favor the hawkish camp," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,758.50 to a high of $1,789.30. They shed 0.4% on Tuesday and they rose 0.7% on Monday.
Silver for December delivery declined 27.6 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $23.231 an ounce. Silver futures traded between $23.04 and $23.67. They fell 2.4% on Tuesday and they gained 0.5% on Monday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
January platinum lost $16.80 to $1,022.50 an ounce, ranging from $1,021.50 to $1,049.
- Palladium for December delivery declined $20.20 to $1,987.20 an ounce, trading between $1,976.50 and $2,026.50.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2021
Published United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged on Wednesday. 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 / This Week | Last Week | August | September | October | 2021 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 17,500 | 112,000 | 67,500 | 132,000 | 945,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 21,000 | 4,000 | 7,000 | 88,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,000 | 34,000 | 8,000 | 22,000 | 150,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 30,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 | 85,000 | 450,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 27,500 | 24,000 | 38,500 | 298,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 3,930,000 | 2,735,000 | 1,076,000 | 26,751,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 |
| Tuskegee Airmen 5 oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52,900 |
