Precious metals declined on Monday, led by a 1.8% loss in silver which ended at its lowest price in nearly two-and-a-half months.
Down for the first time in three sessions, gold for February delivery shed $7.10, or 0.4%, to settle at $2,022.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Technical selling is featured in both metals [gold and silver] to start the trading week. The precious metals bulls have also been crimped early this year by better U.S. economic data that has prompted lower expectations from the marketplace for U.S. interest rate cuts sooner from the Federal Reserve,” Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
During the day, gold futures traded between $2,017.40 and $2,034.10. They fell by 1.1% last week.
Meanwhile, silver for March delivery fell by 41.5 cents to end at $22.296 an ounce. The settlement marked silver’s lowest since it ended at $22.281 an ounce on Nov. 10. Silver futures ranged from $22.04 to $22.78. They lost 2.7% last week.
In other precious metals prices on Monday:
-
April platinum dipped by $4, or 0.4%, to $903 an ounce, trading between $899.70 and $913.20.
- Palladium for March delivery fell by $8.20, or 0.9%, to $940.50 an ounce, ranging from $915 to $956.
Last week, platinum declined by 1.5% and palladium dropped by 3.1%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2024
U.S. Mint published bullion sales last changed on Wednesday, Jan. 17. 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 | Last Week | November | December | 2023 Sales | January | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 8,000 | 40,000 | 15,000 | 924,000 | 60,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 6,000 | 1,000 | 102,000 | 21,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 16,000 | 0 | 198,000 | 36,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 35,000 | 55,000 | 15,000 | 675,000 | 80,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 14,000 | 5,500 | 387,000 | 36,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 846,000 | 2,378,000 | 525,000 | 24,750,000 | 4,875,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 | 0 |
