Except for palladium, precious metals saw modest declines on Wednesday, ranging from 0.1% for gold, which hit a fresh three-week low, to 0.9% for silver. Palladium scored a decent 1.2% gain.
Gold for December delivery shed $2.60 to end at $1,932.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the lowest since Aug. 22 when gold ended at $1,926 an ounce.
"Although prices showed little reaction to a major U.S. inflation report that contained no big surprises, the data did fall into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy hawks. That’s a negative for the metals markets," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that consumer prices had risen by 0.6% last month, up from 0.2% in July. This marked the highest monthly rate since June 2022, while annual inflation accelerated to 3.7% from the previous 3.2%.
On the day, gold futures traded between $1,927.20 and $1,938.40, after falling by 0.6% on Tuesday and climbing by 0.2% on Monday.
Elsewhere, silver for December delivery gave back 22.1 cents, closing at a price of $23.181 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $23.02 and $23.39. They edged up by 0.08% on Tuesday and they rose by 0.9% on Monday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
October platinum declined by $7.60, or 0.8%, to $905.20 an ounce, trading between $898.10 and $914.70.
- Palladium for December delivery advanced by $15.50 to $1,260.80 an ounce, ranging from $1,229 to $1,267.50.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
On Wednesday, and for the first time this week, published U.S. Mint bullion sales changed, with increases of 20,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 1,500 ounces in American Gold Buffalos, and 785,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles.
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) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday / This Week | Last Week | July | August | September | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 8,500 | 3,500 | 41,000 | 78,000 | 12,000 | 756,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 10,000 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 10,000 | 85,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 22,000 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 22,000 | 156,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 15,000 | 20,000 | 0 | 150,000 | 35,000 | 570,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 1,500 | 14,000 | 16,500 | 19,500 | 15,500 | 328,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 785,000 | 717,000 | 209,100,000 | 3,124,000 | 1,502,000 | 16,441,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
Gold and silver deflate as other things inflate.
Doubt we will see the mint deflate their silver collector prices thou.
Major D The $21 range might be a good point. I’ve collected for many years, off and on, since one grandmother gave me some Indian Head cents and the other one some “Mercury” dimes. What “goes around comes around”! One told me she used to get a $2.50 gold coin at/for Christmas. My dumb question, why didn’t you keep them? Her reply “needed it to live on”. So, why did I not buy them, back in the 50’s-60’s? There are wants and there are needs. Needs should always win. Today one of the the grandkids may ask me: “why did… Read more »