Silver Rises for Week, US Bullion Coins Near 2.3M for Month

U.S. silver slipped 1.9 cents on Friday, but three straight prior day gains lifted the metal higher for the week after prices had tumbled 57.4 cents last Friday and then another 24.5 cents on Monday.

New York silver prices for September delivery closed to $18.101 an ounce, marking a weekly increase of 31.3 cents, or 1.8%. It’s intraday high of $18.280 was hit on Friday while its low of $17.440 occurred on Monday.

The quote of the week comes from John Browne, Senior Market Strategist for Euro Pacific Capital, Inc.

"Most investors still credit the accepted orthodoxy that metals will only gain if inflation is widespread or a financial crisis encourages investors to seek safe havens," noted Brown on Thursday. "The failure of both metals to break below their upward trend lines, despite the lack of news on both fronts, should lay to rest these canards."

"In my opinion, the current rise of precious metals is the direct result of the evident profligacy of governments the world over… From my vantage point, the choice between gold and silver is of secondary concern. Investors should be more wary of clinging irrationally to an anachronistic US dollar regime," he added.

Silver tracked gold for much of the week. In fact, the current gold to silver ratio is unchanged from last Friday when 1 ounce of gold could purchase 66.8 ounces of silver.

The London silver fix ended at $18.170 an ounce — its highest level for the week. The price was lower that last Friday, however, which resulted in the metal dropping 8 cents, or 0.4% for the week. London silver reached its lowest level of $17.550 an ounce on Tuesday.

In silver coins news, bullion American Silver Eagles passed 20 million in sales for the year. By week’s end, the bullion coins were at 2,292,000 for the month and 20,460,500 for 2010. Their weekly increase was 644,000. They will need to do just a bit better than that during the final week of July to surpass June’s total 3,001,000.

Precious metal weekly prices follow from New York and London follow:

New York Futures Precious Metal Prices
	August Gold	September Silver	October Platinum	September Palladium
7/16/2010	1188.20	17.788	1512.10	448.60
7/23/2010	1187.80	18.101	1542.80	466.75

 

New York Futures Weekly Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver	X		1.8%	$0.313
Gold		X	-0.03%	-$0.40
Platinum	X		2.0%	$30.70
Palladium	X		4.0%	$18.15

 

London Fix Precious Metal Prices
	Gold		Silver	Platinum		Palladium
	AM	PM		AM	PM	AM	PM
7/16/2010	1204.75	1189.25	18.250	1518.00	1512.00	463.00	456.00
7/23/2010	1198.75	1190.50	18.170	1545.00	1541.00	462.00	460.00

 

London Weekly Bullion Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver		X	-0.4%	-$0.08
Gold	X		0.1%	$1.25
Platinum	X		1.9%	$29.00
Palladium	X		0.9%	$4.00