CoinNews

With the exception of a very modest gain in palladium futures, the major metals gold, silver and platinum each declined 1.0 percent Monday. Precious metals were further pressured when news broke that the euro nations may be stripped of their AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor's.

"Gold is not getting stronger with all the uncertainty in Europe, and the S&P story has exacerbated gold's losses more," Reuters quoted Michael Matousek, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc (GROW.O), which has $2.5 billion in assets.

Gold prices dropped $16.80 to $1,734.50 an ounce in the February futures contract on the [...]

The Board of Directors of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) has ratified the applications for ten new PNG members and three affiliate members.

"We are all delighted to welcome these new PNG members. They all have outstanding credentials and experience, and they have pledged to follow the PNG Code of Ethics in the buying and selling of numismatic merchandise," said PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman.

Recently accepted as PNG Regular Members are [...]

New York precious metals trading opened the week with mixed price trends. Gold, silver, and platinum fell while palladium and rhodium held steady. Spot dealings showed gold down $12.30 at the opening bell, with a bid-side quoted at $1,734 per ounce.

Silver lost 5 cents to start off the session at $32.59 per ounce. Platinum dropped $10 to open at $1,533 and palladium was unchanged at $642 per troy ounce. More on palladium and its recent performance will follow below. In the interim, we expect more of the same; more volatility, more counter-intuitive moves, more confusion among investors. That's the 'new' normal [...]

United States Mint bullion sales of American Gold Eagle coins registered a third straight month of declining numbers in November. Just 41,000 ounces of the 22-karat bullion coins were ordered by the Mint's network of authorized purchasers, the lowest monthly total seen since June 2008.

The downward trend started in September after August reached the second highest monthly total of the year at 112,000 ounces. September sales came in at only 91,000 ounces with October falling further to 50,000 ounces.

Of the 41,000 ounces sold during November, the United States Mint indicates that a majority came from the [...]

Precious metals settled mixed Friday but each notched significant weekly gains. Palladium led the major metals, jumping 13.3 percent. Silver prices surged 5.4 percent. Gold followed with its own 3.9 percent weekly increase while platinum scored a more modest advance of 1.0 percent.

In closing the week, gold prices tacked on $11.50, or 0.7 percent, to $1,751.30 an ounce in the December futures contract on the Comex in New York. Gold touched an intraday low of $1,741.70 and reached as high as $1,767.10 [...]

November turned cold for American Silver Eagle bullion sales, following numerous records including a series of best ever months, the all-time monthly high in January and a fresh annual record.

In a word, the Silver Eagle "imploded" in November. United States Mint buyers ordered only 1,384,000 in a month that is usually seasonally strong for bullion. The figure would be respectable for other months in a series dating back to 1986. But it is squarely on a pathetic level when contrasted against the explosive monthly performances market-watchers have come to expect since the demand-fueled Silver Eagle blasted off in late 2007 [...]

Gold continued to exhibit the same patterns of risk asset behavior that copper, oil, and equities have been displaying while the European saga has been unfolding. Today was a day to start on a positive footing at least for the initial part of the trading morning.

Gold opened $12 higher at $1,757 while silver bounced 80 cents higher to $33.53 the ounce. Within less than half an hour, and in the wake of US economic news and cautious words coming from Ms. Merkel, the former was ahead by only $3 while the latter showed only 39 cents' worth of gains [...]