Precious metals divided Thursday with gold and silver declining from six-week highs and platinum and palladium rising. Palladium ended the day at another three-and-a-half-month high while platinum scored a two-month high. Gold’s loss was its first in five sessions.
Gold for December delivery shed $6.50, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,807.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Gold and silver prices are moderately down in midday U.S. trading Thursday, on some pressure from an uptick in trader and investors risk appetite late this week following some U.S. inflation data that was a bit tamer than expected. Rising U.S. Treasury bond yields today are also a negative for the metals," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
On Thursday, Labor Department reported that producer prices decreased 0.5% in July after rising 1% in June, resulting in a year-over-year gain of 9.8%. On Wednesday, the Labor Department said that consumer prices were unchanged in July after rising 1.3% in June, resulting in year-over-year inflation of 8.5% from 9.1%.
Gold futures traded between $1,798.60 and $1,814.90. They edged up 0.08% on Wednesday, for their highest settlement since June 29, they rose 0.4% on Tuesday, and they gained 0.8% on Monday.
Silver for September delivery fell 39.3 cents, or 1.9%, to end at $20.349 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $20.19 and $20.61. They rose 1.3% on Wednesday, also for their best finish since June 29, they shed 0.6% on Tuesday, and they jumped 3.9% on Monday.
In other precious metals futures prices on Thursday:
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October platinum added $13.30, or 1.4%, to $959.40 an ounce, trading between $941.30 and $974.60. The settlement was the highest since June 11.
- Palladium for September delivery jumped $42.50, or 1.9%, to $2,288.40 an ounce, ranging from $2,227 to $2,297. The close was palladium’s strongest since April 29.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2022
Published United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged for a third day in a row on Thursday after showing gains on Monday for the first time this month.
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) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | May | June | July | This Week / August | 2022 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 164,500 | 31,000 | 59,500 | 21,000 | 706,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 5,000 | 1,000 | 72,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 8,000 | 18,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 132,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 50,000 | 135,000 | 20,000 | 15,000 | 540,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 56,000 | 21,500 | 39,500 | 6,500 | 305,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 1,350,000 | 925,000 | 850,000 | 408,000 | 11,964,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 23,500 | 15,500 | 1,000 | 80,000 |
And again it’s down. It looks like the stock market, one day up, two days down, next day up. Follow the bouncing ball.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
JPMorgan Precious-Metal Traders Found Guilty of Spoofing, Had ‘Power to Manipulate the Global Price of Gold’. Great, were they the only 2 people doing so?
And the plot deepens.