Gold Prices Up for 3rd Day, Silver Surges and US Mint Bullion Sales Muted

Gold prices ended higher Thursday for a third consecutive session as U.S. dollar weakness and stronger oil prices were supportive, say analysts.

"The fact that we have Iran in the background is certainly helping through higher oil prices, which are a negative for most other industrial commodities. But for gold, it’s positive as it boosts inflation-hedging and boosts its safe-haven attributes," Nikos Kavalis, a strategist at RBS, said according to Reuters.

Gold prices added $15, or 0.8%, to $1,786.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, trading between $1,773.30 an ounce and $1,789.50 an ounce.

Silver was the only precious metal to fall Wednesday, but it performed the best on Thursday. March silver futures prices gained $1.30, or 3.8%, to $35.56 an onnce.

In other precious metals futures, palladium and platinum each rose 0.1%. March palladium futures closed to $718.40 an ounce, falling 65 cents. April platinum prices settled at $1,723 an ounce, down $2.20.

United States Mint Bullion Sales

The United States Mint published zero bullion sales on Thursday following two consecutive daily gains for at least one of its bullion coins. The most recent figures are provided below in the daily, monthly and 2012 columns.

 

Notes: Figures above are in coins, not ounces sold. The United States Mint last updated sales of its 5 oz. America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins on Friday, January 27, 2012. Since no gains have been published for well over three weeks, levels have likely remained the same. All other bullion sales have an "as of date" of Thursday, February 23, 2012, as published on the Mint website.

In recent United States Mint news, the following two articles are of note:

• US Infantry Silver Dollar Sales Figures  – CoinCollectingNews.org
• 2012 Infantry Silver Dollar Sales – SilverCoinsToday.com

As the newest United States Mint product release, opening sales of Infantry Silver Dollar commemorative coins take the headlines. In differences of content, the CoinCollectingNews.org article provides a break out of weekly sales across all Mint products while the SilverCoinsToday.com article focuses solely on silver product weekly sales.

London Bullion Prices

London bullion prices advanced with all metals rising at least 1%. From the Wednesday PM to Thursday PM London Fix:

• Gold prices added $25, or 1.4%, to $1,777 an ounce,
• Silver gained 47 cents, or 1.4%, to $34.55 an ounce,
• Palladium added $8, or 1.1%, to $721 an ounce, and
• Platinum gained $31, or 1.8%, to $1,729 an ounce

Refer to this site’s home page for always updated bullion prices and news.