Precious metals declined together for a third day in a row on Thursday, potentially leading to enormous weekly losses if there are no turnarounds on Friday. Both gold and silver reached their lowest prices in just over three months.
Gold for August delivery fell by $21.20, or 1.1%, to settle at $1,923.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the lowest since March 16.
"Central banks are in focus late this week and they are still leaning hawkish on their monetary policies. That’s bearish for the precious metals markets, both from a demand perspective and as it makes the competing asset class of government bonds more attractive as bond yields are rising," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
Gold futures traded between $1,922 and $1,945.10, after dipping 0.1% on Wednesday and dropping 1.2% at the start of the new trading week on Tuesday. (U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Juneteenth holiday.) The yellow metal is down 2.4% week to date.
Meanwhile, silver for July delivery gave back 34.3 cents, or 1.5%, to close at $22.467 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since March 21. The range for silver futures was between $22.20 and $22.75. They lost 1.8% on Wednesday and tumbled 3.7% on Tuesday. Silver is 6.9% lower week to date.
In other precious metals prices on Thursday:
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July platinum declined by $22.50, or 2.4%, to $926.50 an ounce, trading between $923.40 and $950.40.
- Palladium for September delivery sank by $71.70, or 5.3%, to $1,272.60 an ounce, ranging from $1,265 to $1,349.50.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
A week ago Tuesday, June 13, the U.S. Mint published bullion sales gains for the first time this month. No further sales have been reported since then. The table below presents a breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products sold, with columns indicating the number of coins sold (not total ounces) during different time periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday / This Week | Last Week | March | April | May | June | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 16,000 | 211,000 | 159,500 | 60,500 | 16,000 | 606,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 8,000 | 18,000 | 1,000 | 73,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 32,000 | 4,000 | 132,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 15,000 | 10,000 | 35,000 | 80,000 | 15,000 | 340,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,000 | 73,000 | 61,000 | 47,000 | 7,000 | 266,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 725,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 1,593,000 | 725,000 | 8,967,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 3,500 | 7,500 | 500 | 1,200 | 3,500 | 12,700 |
