Silver inched lower on Wednesday while gold, platinum and palladium posted modest gains. Palladium’s increase was its sixth in a row.
Gold for February delivery edged up 80 cents, or 0.04%, to settle at $1,785.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The finish was the highest since gold ended at the same price on Nov. 29.
"Gold seems to be finding difficulty in achieving any momentum in either direction," and prices around the $1,780 level looked like a magnet" in Wednesday dealings, said Ross Norman, chief executive officer at Metals Daily, according to MarketWatch. "Being early December, markets are quite thin and it does follow that we get moves that are counter-intuitive and this relates to some book-squaring ahead of year end."
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,780.10 to a high of $1,794.30. They rose 0.3% on Tuesday and they shed 0.3% on Monday.
Silver for March delivery declined 9.1 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $22.432 an ounce. Silver futures traded between $22.30 and $22.58. They added 1.2% on Tuesday and they lost 1% on Monday, marking their lowest finish since Sept. 30.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
January platinum gained $5.90, or 0.6%, to $955.90 an ounce, ranging from $942.70 and $961.10.
- Palladium for March delivery added $5.40, or 0.3%, to $1,852.40 an ounce, trading between $1,832 and $1,875.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2021
Published United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged 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 | October | November | December | 2021 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 18,500 | 135,500 | 125,500 | 20,500 | 1,095,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 2,000 | 96,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 22,000 | 10,000 | 0 | 160,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 85,000 | 40,000 | 0 | 490,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,000 | 41,000 | 39,500 | 8,000 | 348,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 1,076,000 | 1,523,500 | 0 | 28,275,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1 Oz Palladium Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8,700 | 0 | 8,700 |
| Tuskegee Airmen 5 oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52,900 |
Time to buy silver. There’s some good Type 2 2021 ASE in MS70 state. I already have my Type 1.
Silver is often called the “poor man’s gold”
Sir Kaiser, you are a gentleman and a scholar.