Precious metals rallied on Friday, padding or resulting in gains on the week for gold, platinum and palladium. Gold ended the week at a nearly seven-month high.
Gold for February delivery advanced $29.10, or 1.6%, to settle at $1,869.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was gold’s highest since ending at 1,875.50 an ounce on June 10. Gold prices surged 2.4% for the week.
"Technically, the gold futures bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a two-month-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close in February futures above solid resistance at $1,900.00. Bears’ next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $1,775.00," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
Elsewhere, silver for March delivery tacked on 55.8 cents, or 2.4%, to finish at $23.982 an ounce. Silver prices, however, traded 0.2% lower for the week.
In PGM prices on Friday and for the week:
-
April platinum surged $34.70, or 3.2%, to end at $1,104.30 an ounce, for a 2% weekly increase.
- Palladium for March delivery soared $74, or 4.3%, to end at $1,806.70 an ounce, for a 0.5% increase.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
Published United States Mint bullion sales last changed on Dec. 29. 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) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August | September | October | November | December | 2022 Sales | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 47,500 | 47,500 | 59,500 | 6,000 | 4,000 | 850,000 | 0 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 2,000 | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 | 0 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 4,000 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 0 | 0 | 140,000 | 0 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 20,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 0 | 0 | 575,000 | 0 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 22,500 | 44,500 | 39,500 | 4,500 | 0 | 410,000 | 0 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 850,000 | 833,000 | 1,258,000 | 1,407,000 | 59,000 | 15,963,500 | 0 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 1,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80,000 | 0 |
