Precious metals started the new trading week and month on Monday with losses ranging from 1% for gold to 4.6% for silver. Both metals established significant settlement lows, reaching back to March for both.
Falling for the sixth consecutive session, gold for December delivery lost $18.90 to settle at $1,847.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. For a second straight instance, the settlement was the lowest since ending at $1,834.60 an ounce on March 9.
"Gold’s kryptonite is surging Treasury yields and a stronger dollar," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, told MarketWatch.
"Wall Street is having a major reset on where flows are going and that is clearly not gold’s way," he said. "Fixed income is all of sudden attractive and that killed the short-term outlook for gold."
Gold futures traded between $1,842.70 and $1,864.70. They lost 4.1% last week.
Elsewhere, silver for December delivery tumbled by $1.03 to $21.41 an ounce, marking its weakest settlement since closing at $20.506 an ounce on March 16. Silver futures ranged from $21.21 to $22.41. Last week, they sank 5.9%.
In other precious metals prices on Monday:
-
January platinum declined by $29.10, or 3.2%, to $886.80 an ounce, with prices trading between $884.80 and $921.60.
- Palladium for December delivery dropped by $50.10, or 4%, to $1,205.90 an ounce, ranging from $1,201 and $1,258.50.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
On Monday, the U.S. Mint adjusted its bullion sales for September and published starting sales for October.
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) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday / October | Last Week | July | August | September | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 25,500 | 0 | 41,000 | 78,000 | 27,500 | 797,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 13,000 | 88,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 6,000 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 30,000 | 170,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 10,000 | 0 | 0 | 150,000 | 40,000 | 585,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 7,500 | 0 | 16,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 338,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 717,000 | 0 | 2,091,000 | 3,124,000 | 2,970,000 | 18,626,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
