On the final trading day of the week and month, prices for gold and silver edged up slightly, rose over 1% for palladium, but dipped a bit for platinum. As for April, gold ended near $2,000 with a modest gain, while silver, platinum, and palladium soared with monthly increases ranging from 2.9% to 8.7%.
On Friday, gold for June delivery inched up 10 cents, or 0.01%, to settle at $1,999.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Gold has run into strong resistance just ahead of the all-time high," MarketWatch quoted David Russell, director of marketing at GoldCore. "This is not unexpected in the short term, especially since its dramatic 25% rise since last October."
For the week, gold prices rose 0.4% after losses of 1.3% last week and 0.5% in the week ending April 14. Before then, the yellow metal had scored six straight weekly gains during which prices advanced a combined $209.30 or 11.5%.
As for April, gold prices picked up 0.7%. They have increased by 9.5% year to date.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"This week, 18 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Among the participants, three analysts, or 17%, were bullish on gold in the near term. At the same time, six analysts, or 33%, were bearish for next week, and nine analysts, or 50%, saw prices trading sideways…
Due to a technical problem, Kitco News could not run its weekly online survey; however, a Twitter poll showed that a majority of retail investors remain bullish on gold in the near term.
This week 160 votes were cast in a Twitter poll. Of these, 80 respondents, or 50%, looked for gold to rise next week. At the same time, bearish and neutral positions garnered 40 votes each, 25%."
Meanwhile, silver for July delivery rose by 1.7 cents, or 0.07%, to settle at $25.226 an ounce. For this week, silver prices climbed 0.7% after falling by 1.6% last week and ending a five-week winning streak. In April, silver prices rallied 4.4%. They are up by 4.9% for the year.
In other precious metals prices on Friday, for the week, and in April:
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July platinum shed $3.10, or 0.3%, to end at $1,090.10 an ounce, padding its weekly loss to 4.3% while slimming its monthly increase to 8.7%.
- Palladium for June delivery tacked on $17.50, or 1.2%, to finish at $1,509.90 an ounce, trimming its weekly drop to 6.1% while advancing 2.9% in April.
In terms of year-to-date performance, platinum has edged up by 0.7%, while palladium has logged a decline of 16%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
U.S. Mint bullion sales of American Eagle and Buffalo coins slowed or stalled this week. When comparing sales on a week-over-week basis:
- American Platinum Eagles: 0 ounces for a third week in a row
- American Gold Eagles: 37,000 ounces against 48,500 ounces
- American Gold Buffalos: 4,000 ounces compared to 22,000 ounces
- American Silver Eagles: 0 ounces against 450,000 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 | Last Week | This Week | January Sales | February | March | April | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 47,500 | 37,000 | 118,000 | 41,500 | 211,000 | 159,000 | 529,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37,000 | 8,000 | 1,000 | 8,000 | 54,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 62,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 96,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 5,000 | 0 | 115,000 | 85,000 | 10,000 | 35,000 | 245,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 22,000 | 4,000 | 59,000 | 19,500 | 73,000 | 61,000 | 212,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 450,000 | 0 | 3,949,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 6,649,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A | 7,500 | 500 | 8,000 |
