Prices for precious metals took different paths on Friday as well as for the week. Platinum and palladium saw significant increases, while gold and silver posted declines during both periods.
On Friday, gold for June delivery fell by $28.60, or 1.4%, to settle at $1990.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, marking its weakest settlement since March 31.
Gold prices lost 1.3% this week and 0.5% last week, following six straight weekly increases during which prices rose a combined $209.30 or 11.5%. Year-to-date, gold prices have climbed by 9%
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"This week, 23 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Among the participants, six analysts, or 26%, were bullish on gold in the near term. At the same time, eight analysts, or 35%, were bearish for next week, and nine analysts, or 49%, saw prices trading sideways.
Meanwhile, 618 votes were cast in online polls. Of these, 329 respondents, or 53%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 166, or 27%, said it would be lower, while 123 voters, or 20%, were neutral in the near term."
Elsewhere, silver for May delivery dropped 31.5 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $25.058 an ounce. The finish was the lowest since April 10. As for the week, silver gave back 1.6%, snapping a five weekly winning streak in which prices jumped $4.95 or 24.2%. Year-to-date, silver prices are up by 4.2%.
In other precious metals prices on Friday and for the week:
-
July platinum advanced $31.30, or 2.8%, to end at $1,138.70 an ounce, padding it weekly gain to 8%.
- Palladium for June delivery tacked on $18.70, or 1.2%, to close at $1,607.40 an ounce, for a 7.4% weekly gain.
In terms of year-to-date performance, platinum has increased by 5.2%, while palladium has experienced a decline of 10.6%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
U.S. Mint bullion sales of American Eagle and Buffalo gold coins slowed this week, while they picked up for American Eagle silver coins. When comparing sales on a week-over-week basis:
- American Platinum Eagles: 0 ounces for a second week in a row
- American Gold Eagles: 48,500 ounces against 57,500 ounces
- American Gold Buffalos: 22,000 ounces compared to 25,500 ounces
- American Silver Eagles: 450,000 ounces against 0 ounces
The table below presents a breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products sold, with columns indicating the number of coins sold during different time periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday / This Week | Last Week | January Sales | February | March | April | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 47,500 | 56,500 | 118,000 | 41,500 | 211,000 | 122,000 | 492,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 37,000 | 8,000 | 1,000 | 8,000 | 54,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 2,000 | 0 | 62,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 96,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 5,000 | 10,000 | 115,000 | 85,000 | 10,000 | 35,000 | 245,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 22,000 | 25,500 | 59,000 | 19,500 | 73,000 | 57,000 | 208,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 450,000 | 0 | 3,949,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 6,649,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A | 7,500 | 500 | 8,000 |
When you see a good deal, jump on it. Guess that’s why gold is down, people are taking advantage of that price and profiting from it.
So some of the 13 big boy bullion coin companies in the U.S. Mint’s AP bullion version coin program only bought precious metals coins on one day this week – today. Interesting, in such a supposed hot marketplace…they bought the spot price dip today in bargain hunting…they bought low today from the Mint & will sell high to the public – a nice setup.
NumisdudeTX
I heard two things I found interesting yesterday, both from the same person. How accurate he is I do not know. One was that among investment portfolios in the United States, only 1/2% contain gold and the other was that our money supply has increased by 50% since 2007. The guy said the amount of gold in portfolios used to be higher and he thinks if it just went back to what it was in the past, the price of gold would be 500% higher today. It made me wonder if crypto could be part of the reason. Would the… Read more »
Jeff Legan, Very interesting stats for sure. I am not a cryptocurrency expert by any means, but I have heard anecdotally that a good percentage of even some stackers of precious metals/coins have been diverting some of their investment budget to especially Bitcoin (BTC). One of my uncle’s was a Ph.D in Business & a university professor & a Licensed Financial Planner, and he said that he & his business partner agreed with the average recommendation of most professional money managers that those with money to invest should have between 5% & 10% of their total investment money in precious… Read more »
In 2020-2021 M2 increased over 25%, which was a huge increase in the money supply due to covid 19 and basically the shutdown of our economy. I don’t know about the 50% number but it wouldn’t surprise me.I have a fairly sizeable investment portfolio and don’t hold any gold miners or gold equivalent stocks in it. There are too many better stocks to invest in vs the miners, in my opinion. For actual gold, I personally like to have it in my hands! FYI, if your brilliant reader Biden, our should I say his puppet masters, gets their way with… Read more »
The last President to balance the USA Federal Budget was Clinton.
And, by the way, Biden has had a speech impediment since childhood & went through many years of professional speech therapy for the problem of stuttering. His “gaffes” are sometimes due to this pathologically problem. But, be was elected by his constituents in Delaware (where most USA corporations are incorporated) & served in Congress for 36 years as a Senator & 8 years as Vice President now as President. He is known for his bipartisan work in Congress. Let’s compare resumes!
NumisdudeTX
California wants you to come home!
Craig,
No thanks! I’m just fine here in The Great State of Texas, with no state income tax in the Democrat enclave of Austin (“Keep Austin Weird”).
Are you in the state of Reality? Or are you in the state of Conspiracy here, there & everywhere?
NumisdudeTX
Conspiracy? Liberals are the one’s always shouting “Russia, Russia, Russia”, no? I’m not surprised you enjoy the Austin lifestyle. Isn’t it home to one of the largest gay populations in the US? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’ll bet you’re more of a Beto O’Rourke type vs a Chuck Norris.
Craig, Amen dude! I like “Beto” (Robert Francis O’Rourke) basically, but the poor handsome man lives in what we call “Hell Paso”, Texas just a walk away from the border murder capital of Mexico at Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. I spent a month there one night as they say! Lol. Austin is highly gay, very wealthy & a high-tech hub for many decades with even Elon Musk buying up lots of land here recently & employing many at one of his many companies. Austin is the “Live Music Capital” of the USA. Austin also has the largest campus of The University… Read more »
Kaiser,
“No man is an island”…Maybe you could join the Green Party & hug trees in your free time. Lol. Southern ladies here in Texas plant tomatoes whether they need them or not…but we here on this website already have a lifetime hobby of numismatics.
NumisdudeTX
I believe you are mostly correct in your assessment Kaiser. If a “total collapse of our economic structure” occurs, we probably wouldn’t have access to our monetary funds, or they would be practically worthless, Hell, if our electric grid was compromised for a period of time, most of us would be up a creek without a paddle. That’s one of the reasons I hold gold and silver coins, they are fungible and I think would be in demand for the procurement of essential products. Now Kaiser, I’m not planning for the total collapse, but some sectors of our economy do… Read more »
Kaiser,
I too noticed that the Mint has 15 products scheduled for release in “Summer” & 15 products for “Fall” release scheduled (some have actual dates, but most do not). So get your budgets planned on your computer spreadsheet!
I also noticed that for some reason it seems the annual Proof coin set & annual Uncirculated coin set is not scheduled for much later than normal this year. I wonder why?
NumisdudeTX
I don’t think gold is going up, I think dollar is going down. Arkansas going to gold backed money. No taxes. China and Russia have way more metal than America. If gold pops, they get rich.
I’ve heard that too, D&C. After all, the Dollar isn’t backed by gold anymore(thanks, Nixon), but merely by the good faith of our government. I don’t know about you, but my faith in our government has waned in recent years (decades actually!) The really sad thing for me is that I’m getting used to expenses thrown around in the trillions of dollars. My brain has a hard time contemplating a billion of something, a trillion things would cause my brain to simply explode. Lol. Gov Huckabee signed the Legal Tender Act into law which makes gold and silver metals legal… Read more »
Did they factor in for the possibility of multiple universes? I know physicists have been truly blessed in the brain department, but how would one even begin to contemplate something like that! Did the super computer(s) they used figure out the atomic makeup of dark matter and black holes? It’s amazing to me how much we’ve learned about our universe since the advent of computers, but there still is much more that we don’t have a clue about. Btw, those are the kind of shows I enjoy, “How the Universe Works” always makes me feel really small, like the size… Read more »
Kaiser, I don’t know if they are miserable or just conditioned to a certain way of life. They are a thrifty, hard working society and are developing (some might say stealing/borrowing) some impressive technologies lately. They now have a smart looking supersonic drone which travels at Mach3, satellite destroying missiles, and plans to build a base station on the dark side of the moon in the next several years. Remember Pink Floyd? I just don’t think Xi Jinping is focusing on the happiness of his countrymen as a top priority.