The United States Mint plans to open sales at noon Eastern Time April 22 for its 10-coin 2025 Silver Proof Set, priced at $150 per set.
The coins, all struck at the San Francisco Mint, are secured within two plastic lenses.
Source – Coin World
They bought over 1,000 tonnes of the precious metal last year, double the average amount purchased in the previous decade, according to a European Central Bank report published on Wednesday.
The authors wrote that global holdings of gold by reserve banks increased to 36,000 metric tons in 2024, close to the record of 38,000 metric tons reached around 60 years ago.
Now, central bank reserves are composed of, on average, the dollar, at 46%, gold, at 20%, other currencies at 18%, and the euro at 16%.
Source – Business Insider
The spread between the cash LME copper contract and benchmark three-month futures spiked to a premium for the first time in 19 months on Friday.
It rocketed to $249 a metric ton, the highest since November 2021, compared to a discount, or contango, of $119 two days ago.
Copper prices on COMEX have surged as investors seek to price in potential tariffs, with the premium of COMEX over LME at $1,050 a ton on Friday, down from a record peak of $1,153 a day earlier.
Source – Mining.com
Silver price (XAG/USD) hits a fresh weekly high to near $33.20 during North American trading hours on Wednesday. The white metal strengthens as the US Dollar (USD) extends its downside on the United States (US) credit rating erosion in the wake of large debt levels and escalated fiscal imbalances.
Technically, a soft US Dollar makes the Silver price a value bet for investors. Additionally, concerns over US credit erosion improve the safe-haven demand of non-yielding assets, such as Silver.
Source – FX Street
Investors are increasingly seeking safe-haven in hard assets like gold, silver, copper and platinum, historically viewed as stores of value in times of financial uncertainty, Saxo Bank’s Ole Hansen says in a note.
Source – Wall Street Journal
Futures (in finance) – Are contracts to buy or sell a specific underlying asset at a future date.
Spot gold eased 0.2% to $2,893.87 per ounce as of 09:58 a.m. ET (1458 GMT). U.S. gold futures fell 0.4% to $2,920.60.
Prices dropped over 1% after data showed the U.S. consumer price index jumped 0.5% last month, more than expected, reinforcing the Fed message that it was in no rush to resume cutting interest rates amid growing uncertainty over the economy.
“With today’s CPI data coming in hotter-than-expected, that has put weight on the gold market. Obviously at this point, any expectation that the market would have had of any type of rate cut later this year has now been put down,” said David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures.
Spot silver shed 0.7% to $32.05 per ounce and palladium fell 0.3% to $973.11, while platinum added 0.7% to $990.10.
Source – Reuters
CPI – Consumer Price Index
U.S. President Donald Trump sprang a double surprise on the copper market when he announced import tariffs of 50% effective next month.
The August 1 start date signals the end of the race to ship physical metal to the United States to capture the tariff arbitrage.
A lucky few with cargoes already afloat may yet cross the finishing line in time, but the physical tariff trade is rapidly unwinding.
The LME benchmark spread is now in a comfortable contango of $66 per ton, compared with a backwardation of more than $300 per ton at the end of June.
Source – Reuters