On Friday, prices of precious metals rose modestly, adding to the weekly gain in palladium, while trimming the weekly losses in gold, silver and platinum.
Snapping a three-session losing streak, gold for December delivery climbed by $7.30, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,976.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"The jobs report has allowed the market to propose that the Federal Reserve is not as likely to raise interest rates. As a result, we’ve seen bond yields drop along with the dollar and that is certainly supporting the price of gold," Reuters quoted David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures.
Early Friday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the economy added 187,000 jobs in July. That was below many economists’ forecasts of around 200,000 job gains for the month.
Gold prices decreased this week by 1.2% after slipping by 0.3% last week. Year to date, they have advanced by 8.2%.
Also gaining for the first time in four sessions, silver for September inched up by 1.9 cents, or 0.08%, closing at $23.716 an ounce.
Silver prices posted a 3.2% weekly decline, following losses of 1.5% last week and 1.4% in the week ending July 21. Its weekly drop was the worst since plunging 7.3% in the week ending June 23. Year to date, the precious metal has fallen by 1.4%.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
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October platinum rose by $6.70, or 0.7%, to finish at $928.50 an ounce, reducing its weekly loss to 1.6%.
- Palladium for September delivery increased by $7.20, or 0.6%, to end at $1,264.60 an ounce, padding its weekly gain to 2%.
Reviewing their performance since the beginning of the year, platinum has declined by 14.3%, and palladium has dropped by 29.7%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
The U.S. Mint last published bullion sales changes on Wednesday, Aug. 2, when it adjusted its figures for July.
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) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday / This Week | May | June | July | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 60,500 | 35,000 | 41,000 | 666,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 18,000 | 1,000 | 0 | 73,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 32,000 | 4,000 | 0 | 132,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 80,000 | 60,000 | 0 | 385,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 47,000 | 17,000 | 16,500 | 293,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 1,593,000 | 1,482,000 | 209,100,000 | 11,815,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 1,200 | 3,500 | 0 | 12,700 |
