Palladium gained on Wednesday while gold, silver and platinum declined. Silver’s loss was its seventh straight. Gold and platinum, meanwhile, have dropped in six of the last seven sessions, with their most recent advance on Tuesday.
Gold for June delivery declined $15.40, or 0.8%, to finish at $1,888.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the lowest since Feb. 25.
"With interest rate hikes all but guaranteed by the U.S. central bank in May and June and highly likely in July too, gold’s lack of yield has seen it fall out of favor by investors," said Rupert Rowling, market analyst at Kinesis Money, in a note reported by MarketWatch.
"That said, $1,900 remains a very high level for gold historically and given the fragile state of markets currently, it wouldn’t take much for renewed fear trading to push its price upward once again," he wrote.
Gold futures traded between $1,881.60 and $1,908.10. The rose 0.4% on Tuesday and they fell 2% on Monday.
Silver for July delivery — the new, most-active contract — fell 8.5 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $23.505 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since Feb. 15. Silver futures ranged from $23.32 to $23.81. They shed 0.5% on Tuesday and they dropped 2.4% on Monday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
July platinum gave back $1.70, or 0.2%, to $910.40 an ounce, trading between $895.40 and $930.
- Palladium for June delivery added $16.60, or 0.8%, to $2,195.10 an ounce, ranging from $2,146.50 to $2,248.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2022
Published United States Mint bullion sales increased on Wednesday, and for the first time this week, by 17,000 ounces in silver coins and a combined 29,500 ounces in gold coins.
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 | February | March | April | 2022 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 19,500 | 39,500 | 86,000 | 140,500 | 80,500 | 430,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 5,000 | 3,000 | 53,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 8,000 | 4,000 | 20,000 | 14,000 | 102,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 25,000 | 75,000 | 25,000 | 320,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 10,000 | 10,000 | 28,500 | 64,500 | 27,000 | 181,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 17,000 | 408,000 | 1,500,000 | 1,080,500 | 850,000 | 8,431,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 25,800 | 14,200 | 0 | 40,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1 Oz Palladium Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
