Reversing positions from a day earlier, precious metals divided Tuesday with gold and silver higher and platinum and palladium lower. Gains for the pair of metals were modest, each up 0.1%, and their first in four sessions. They follow U.S. inflation data which registered higher than expected.
Gold for April delivery rose $1.90 to settle at $1,865.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures traded between $1,852.50 and $1,881.60. They lost 0.6% on Monday, closing at their lowest price since Jan. 5.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that consumer prices increased 0.5% in January after rising 0.1% in December, with annual inflation easing to 6.4% from 6.5%. Many economists expected a 6.2% annual inflation rate.
Silver for March delivery edged up 2.1 cents to finish at $21.873 an ounce. Silver futures traded between $21.58 and $22.04. They fell 1% on Monday, logging their weakest settlement since Nov. 30.
In other precious metals prices Tuesday:
-
April platinum declined $20.20, or 2.1%, to $939.20 an ounce, ranging from $931.80 to $964.30.
- Palladium for March delivery fell $70.30, or 4.6%, to $1,466.20 an ounce, trading between $1,515 and $1,564.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
Published United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged on Monday and Tuesday. 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) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January Sales | Last Week | February | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 118,000 | 9,000 | 9,000 | 127,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 37,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 38,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 62,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 64,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 115,000 | 65,000 | 65,000 | 180,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 59,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 64,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 3,949,000 | 450,000 | 450,000 | 4,399,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gold is now selling for $437 an ounce more than Palladium. Who saw this coming?
Not that long ago, the palladium coin was 1200 and 1300. Then went to 2700 I think. Not sure what it is now. As part of the platinum family supposed to be rarer than gold. Ruthenium and I wanna say rhodium are rarer. But much harder to work. Malate, hmmm. How do you say malleable in that sentence. Much harder to mal___
I think “much harder to work” is as eminently serviceable a way to say that as any.
Wonder why the sudden drop. From $25 for silver to $21. Took weeks to creep up and seconds to collapse. Inflation was up 6.2% for January. Only 500k jobs created, but with over 47 million. Quitting and not looking for work since 2021 alone, it isn’t a lot. Hoe many are people taking a second part time job because they can’t get a full time one? I hate the system they use to determine unemployment. It is almost as bad as the formula for inflation which excludes 99% of everything we use.
I’ve read, Dazed and Coinfused, that the government’s reported unemployment rate is as low as half of the number of people actually out of work (among those who haven’t given up looking for jobs) because if the public was aware of the true figure it would be a shock to the system. Apparently the government also applies that same minimizing technique to the inflation rate for yet another opportunity to make itself look better and to avoid having to pay actual inflation rate based benefit increases.