Precious metals fell on Friday, driving gold, silver and palladium into weekly losses and padding platinum’s drop from a week ago as well as setting its price to a more than one-month low.
Falling for the first time in four sessions, gold for December delivery on Friday lost $21.60, or 1.2%, to settle at $1,749.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Equities and metals are suffering from Powell’s unvarnished reminder that rates will need to be high for longer and that perhaps 75 bps is the default for September unless the totality of the data suggests otherwise," Reuters quoted Tai Wong, a senior trader at Heraeus Precious Metals in New York.
Gold prices edged 0.7% lower this week after falling 2.9% last week. Before then, the yellow metal advanced for four straight weeks for a combined $111.90, or 6.6%. Gold is 4.3% lower on the year to date.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"Along with rate expectations, Kitco’s weekly gold survey results revealed that Wall Street is split evenly on gold prices next week. Out of 16 analysts who participated, six (38%) see gold prices either higher or lower next week. Four analysts (25%) were neutral on gold in the near term.
However, retail investors remain bullish on the precious metal. This week 561 votes were cast on online surveys. 53% of respondents projected higher prices, 27% called for a move lower, and 20% were neutral, according to the survey."
Elsewhere, silver for September delivery fell 37.4 cents, or 2%, to settle at $18.746 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since July 27. Silver prices gave back 1.7% this week after sinking 7.9% last week. They are down 19.7% on the year.
In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:
-
October platinum dropped $18.60, or 2.1%, to end at $855.30 an ounce, for a 3.7% weekly loss. The close was the weakest since July 20.
- Palladium for September delivery declined $17.90, or 0.8%, to end at $2,121.90 an ounce, for a modest drop on the week of 0.5%. On Tuesday, palladium at $1,972.90 an ounce marked its lowest settlement since July 21.
Both remained divided on the year so far with platinum 11.5% lower and palladium 11% higher.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2022
Published United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged this week. 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) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday / This Week | Last Week | May | June | July | August | 2022 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 6,000 | 164,500 | 31,000 | 59,500 | 27,000 | 712,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 5,000 | 1,000 | 72,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 8,000 | 18,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 132,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 50,000 | 135,000 | 20,000 | 15,000 | 540,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,500 | 56,000 | 21,500 | 39,500 | 11,000 | 310,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 17,000 | 1,350,000 | 925,000 | 850,000 | 425,000 | 11,981,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23,500 | 15,500 | 1,000 | 80,000 |
Typo happens.
Sir Kaiser, speaking of news, I read my “Dear Valued Customer” letter from the Director, United States Mint, and one sentence that stuck out was, “We are happy to announce that this will include the relaunch of a vibrant and annual Morgan and Peace Dollar Program in 2023.” Key word: annual.
Sir Kaiser and Major D, speaking about all things (coins) clad, in particular, for the Half Dollar (50 cent) Clad Commemorative Series (1982-2022), the 1982-D/S Washington and 1993-W/S Madison (Bill of Rights) coins are composed of Silver (11.34grams 90% silver, 10% copper).