Precious metals rose together on Friday, putting an end to a four-day streak of joint declines and reducing weekly losses, which ranged from over 1% for gold to almost 7.5% for palladium.
Rising for the first time in ten sessions and from a nearly seven-month low, gold for December delivery rose by $13.40, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,845.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold prices shed 1.1% this week after losses of 4.1% last week and 0.03% in the week ending Sept. 22. Their most recent weekly increase occurred in the week ending Sept. 15, rising by 0.2%. Despite the three straight weekly losses, the yellow metal is 1% higher on the year to date. On Thursday, gold closed at its lowest price since March. 8.
Looking to the week ahead, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street vs. Main Street surveys:
"This week, 13 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Five experts, or 38%, expected to see higher gold prices next week, while the same number predicted a drop in price. Three analysts, or 23%, were neutral on gold for the coming week.
Meanwhile, 528 votes were cast in online polls. Of these, 227 retail investors, or 43%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 222, or 42%, expected it would be lower, while 79 respondents, or 15%, were neutral about the near-term prospects for the precious metal."
Elsewhere, silver for December delivery jumped by 70.4 cents, or 3.4%, to finish at $21.723 an ounce. Silver prices registered a 3.2% weekly decline after having sunk 5.9% last week. The last time they gained in a week was by 2% in the one ending Sept. 22. On Thursday, silver closed at its lowest point since March 16. Year to date, they have fallen by 9.6%.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
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January platinum increased by $19, or 2.2%, to end at $881.50 an ounce, trimming its weekly loss to 3.8%.
- Palladium for December delivery rose by $18.20, or 1.6%, to close at $1,163.10 an ounce, reducing its weekly drop to 7.4%.
Assessing their year-to-date performance, platinum has seen a decrease of 18.6%, while palladium has experienced a more substantial decline of 35.3%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
Bullion sales from the U.S. Mint remained unchanged on Friday, following gains on Thursday. 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 / October | July | August | September | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 40,500 | 41,000 | 78,000 | 27,500 | 812,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 2,000 | 0 | 2,000 | 13,000 | 90,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 6,000 | 0 | 2,000 | 30,000 | 170,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 10,000 | 0 | 150,000 | 40,000 | 585,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 13,500 | 16,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 344,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 785,000 | 2,091,000 | 3,124,000 | 2,970,000 | 18,694,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
Rare earth elements are indeed plentiful in our earth’s crust, they’re just rarely found in any concentrated state. That’s why we have to abandon the concept of ‘Save our planet’ if we want to manufacture all those electric batteries to ‘Save our planet’. The other major problem with some of those highly magnetised elements is refining them to their pure form. Low pH solutions and high temperature processes are often needed, which is another reason to abandon the ‘Save our planet’ platform. Hamas is reportedly in control of American hostages taken from Israel. I wonder how many billions this is… Read more »