Precious metals registered losses on Friday, aside from palladium which sharply jumped for a second day in a row and padded its weekly increase. The other metals retraced a small portion of their massive advances from the previous day, making a slight dent into their weekly gains.
Gold for February delivery shed $9.20, or 0.5%, to settle at $2,035.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Fed’s dovish pivot was telegraphed over yesterday’s FOMC meeting and very pragmatically gave a green light for markets to price in a more aggressive Fed cutting cycle on the horizon, and we expect that the market will run with it," Reuters quoted Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities.
"This is extremely positive for gold prices, given that investor demand was one of the missing pieces for the rally to new all-time highs to be sustained."
Gold prices climbed this week by 1.1%, after slipping last week by 3.6%. Year-to-date, the yellow metal is 11.5% higher.
After soaring on Thursday by 6.4% and recording its first gain in nine sessions, on Friday, silver for March delivery fell by 23.2 cents, or 1%, to settle at $24.154 an ounce. The loss on the day trimmed silver’s weekly gain to 3.8%, a contrast to its 10% loss last week. Silver prices have increased by 0.5% year to date.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
-
January platinum gave back $15.30, or 1.6%, to end at $952.60 an ounce, reducing its weekly increase to 3.6%.
- Palladium for March delivery tacked on $81, or 7.2%, to finish at $1,202.40 an ounce, resulting in a sharp weekly gain of 26.4%.
When assessing their performance from the beginning of the year to now, platinum has shown a 12% decrease, whereas palladium has suffered a significantly larger decline of 33.1%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
On Friday, the U.S. Mint published new bullion sales, including updated data for November and the first figures for December. The first reported December gains are provided in the table below. Additions for November included another:
- 2,500 American Gold Buffalo Coins
- 5,000 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coins
- 2,000 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coins
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) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | November | December | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 97,000 | 40,000 | 12,500 | 921,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 7,000 | 6,000 | 1,000 | 102,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 18,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 198,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 30,000 | 55,000 | 10,000 | 670,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 36,500 | 14,000 | 12,500 | 394,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 3,938,000 | 2,378,000 | 368,000 | 24,593,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
