Except for silver, which reached another 6.5-month high and pushed its price higher for the month with a double-digit percent gain, precious metals declined on Thursday. Gold’s loss marked its first in five sessions, after scoring an about 3.3-year high on Wednesday, but the yellow metal still recorded a substantial November increase.
Gold for February delivery declined by $9.90, or 0.5%, to settle at $2,057.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Gold prices are moderately down in midday U.S. trading Thursday, on a routine corrective pullback in an uptrend following recent good gains," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note. "A solid rebound in the U.S. dollar index today and lower crude oil prices are daily outside-market negatives for the metals markets."
Gold prices rose by 3.2% in November, bringing the year-to-date increase to 12.7%. This marks the second consecutive monthly gain, following a 6.9% increase in October. On Wednesday, gold reached its highest settlement since August 6, 2020.
Rising for a fifth straight session, silver for March delivery tacked on 21.7 cents, or 0.9%, to close at $25.66 an ounce. The settlement was the highest since May 9 when the metal closed at $25.898 an ounce.
Silver rallied 11.8% in November, lifting prices by 6.7% for the year to date. Silver’s monthly gain was also its second in a row, with prices rising 2.2% in October.
In other precious metals prices on Thursday and for the month:
-
January platinum gave back $5.50, or 0.6%, to end at $935.90 an ounce, padding its November loss to 1%.
- Falling for a third session, palladium for March delivery lost $21.10, or 2%, to end at $1,020.40 an ounce. Palladium sank by 9.4% in November.
When evaluating their performance from the start of the year to the present day, platinum has posted a decrease of 13.6%, while palladium has experienced a more substantial decline of 43.3%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
U.S. Mint bullion sales last changed on Wednesday, and those gains were the third for this month. Advances included 15,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 939,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles, and 1,500 ounces in American Gold Buffalos.
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 | Last Week | This Week | August | September | October | November | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 12,500 | 78,000 | 27,500 | 97,000 | 35,000 | 904,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 13,000 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 101,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 30,000 | 18,000 | 14,000 | 196,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 10,000 | 150,000 | 40,000 | 30,000 | 55,000 | 660,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 1,500 | 19,500 | 18,500 | 36,500 | 11,500 | 379,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 939,000 | 3,124,000 | 2,970,000 | 3,938,000 | 2,378,000 | 24,225,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
If Kaiser were here he would have enjoyed noting that palladium is now fully 1/2 the price of gold despite it being like comparing apples and squirrels. PGMs are primarily used industrially with only a small percentage bought for jewelry and investment products. On the other hand, gold is used primarily for jewelry and investments and a small percentage consumed for industrial uses.
Dave’s not here man
I’m amazed that people living in Chicago aren’t buying those 1 oz. Pd coins in mass. Just watched a segment about catalytic converter thefts in that city and one ‘expert’ car mechanic stated they are being stolen due to their metals content. He then claimed you can get $10,000.00 per ounce for Pd! Holy cow, and here I thought the Mint was fleecing us with their price for the coin. It turns out they’re giving them away!
Hard to believe how fast palladium fell. Cash for clunkers was the end of privacy. Now cars have all sort of tracking devices and monitoring devices to keep tabs on you. No longer able to be shade tree mechanic. Now everything communicates and stores data. It is not for your safety or to save environment, it’s all to track you and document your every move. New car stereo, GPS, speed, routes, all stops in between, times you travel. And the progressive insurance monitor, tacks how long brakes pressed, how fast you accelerate, how many times you speed. That way if… Read more »
Dazed, You are right about all the surveillance we are exposed to these days. I’m wondering when the lawyers grab onto this and start advertising that these monitors cause cancer, so call us to see if we can get you some money. That day is coming. Was driving down a 2 lane road yesterday and a nice red car came up to my SUV at a red light. After the light turned green, the driver veered to the left of me and passed 2 cars (there were no cars on that side). He did this same thing a few miles… Read more »
They all do. It is basically the black box from airplanes. I saw last night they pulled one out of a car after a crash, showed how far the car traveled, how long brakes were applied and how hard, the speed of the car prior to accident, which seat belts were on or off. How long between time accelerator was released until time the brake first applied. And I’ve seen them call onstar and kill the engine.
Gold is closing in on $2100.00 per ounce, closed at $2090.20 today. I feels good to be rich again, although I doubt most folks are going to be salivating for gold coins, from the mint, once they see the prices they will demand. The gold buffaloes will definitely see a 3 print, the only question is how much more. If they ask $3100 or $3200, I can’t wait to see what Magic Mike will be ‘offering’ these for. Is $5,000 for a 70 grade in the cards?