Precious metals were mixed for a third consecutive day on Friday, just before the extended weekend break for Christmas. All the metals posted substantial weekly gains, with gold notably achieving its highest settlement in three weeks.
For the second session in a row and the fourth daily gain this week, gold for February delivery tacked on $17.80, or 0.9%, to end at $2,069.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The close was the highest since gold reached its record close of $2,089.70 an ounce on Dec. 1.
"Precious metals, including gold, are being driven higher by very aggressive rate cut expectations with the market pricing in a Fed cut in March and a total of 150 bps in 2024," Reuters quoted Tai Wong, a New York-based independent metals trader.
Gold prices scored a 1.6% weekly increase, marking their second straight week of gains following last week’s 1.1% advance. Year-to-date, the yellow metal is 13.3% higher.
Registered a second consecutive day of very modest losses, silver for March delivery dipped by 2 cents, or 0.08%, ending at $24.565 an ounce. Silver prices moved ahead for the week by 1.7% after jumping 3.8% last week. They have increased by 2.2% this year.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and for the week:
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January platinum advanced by $11.50, or 1.2%, to settle at $981.80 an ounce, padding its weekly increase to 3.1%.
- Palladium for March delivery shed $4.50, or 0.4%, to finish at $1,223.70 an ounce, reducing its weekly gain to 1.8%.
When assessing their performance from the beginning of the year to now, platinum has shown a 9.3% decrease, whereas palladium has suffered a significantly larger decline of 32%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
Last Friday, Dec. 15, the U.S. Mint published new bullion sales data, which includes updated figures for November and the initial figures for December. No further changes have been published since then.
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 |
Man, we paid too much for the RP Morgan/Peace Dollars. I saw a coin show over the weekend where NGC 70’s were selling for just $250 for the pair. I’m so glad I only purchased one set from the mint.