Sales of gold coins and minted bars rose to 25,103 ounces in February, up 35% from January. On a year-on-year basis, they were down 47%.
Silver product sales increased to 482,451 ounces in February.
“It is heartening to see the increase in sales on January levels given precious metals prices remain at record highs,” said Neil Vance, Perth Mint’s general manager of minted products.
Source – Reuters
Trump announced 25% tariffs on all vehicles and foreign-made auto parts imported into the United States late on Wednesday, prompting heavy losses in Japanese and South Korean stocks in Asian trading overnight.
General Motors slumped 6%, while shares in Ford fell almost 5%, reflecting concerns about the impact on their supply chains.
“Uncertainty on the tariff front remains high, which is really tough for both businesses but also investors to plan into the future, and of course it’s making it really difficult for investors to price risk,” said Baylee Wakefield, a multi-asset portfolio manager at Aviva Investors.
Gold prices rose, up 0.7% on the day at $3,040 an ounce. Goldman Sachs raised its gold price forecast on Wednesday, citing stronger-than-expected ETF inflows and sustained central bank demand.
Source – Reuters
Pan American Silver’s shares slumped Monday in the wake of the Canadian miner’s move to buy smaller producer MAG Silver in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $2.1 billion.
In morning trading, the shares were 14% lower at C$32.61 in Toronto and down 15% at $23.17 on the New York Stock Exchange. MAG Silver in contrast jumped 8.1% to C$25.49, widening its advance so far this year to 30%.
The deal between the Vancouver, British Columbia, companies will bolster Pan American’s position as a silver-and-gold producer in the Americas and add a stake in a big producing silver mine in Mexico. The agreement comes after precious-metals prices have rallied this year, encouraging a number of mergers and acquisitions among mining companies.
Source – Market Watch
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the White House was “very busy” crafting its trade policy as the clock ticks down on his self-imposed August 1 deadline. At that point, America could fundamentally reshape the way it does business around the world.
Trump signed executive actions on Wednesday imposing a 50% tariff on Brazil, a 50% tariff on certain copper products and suspending a tax perk for all countries that allowed cheap packages to fly into the US duty-free.
Trump said the agreement, if completed, would include developing Pakistan’s oil reserves with a yet-to-be-named oil company.
Source – CNN
Spot gold was 1.3% down at $2,840.25 an ounce by 10:42 a.m. ET (1542 GMT). Bullion has so far lost 3.2% for the week, its steepest weekly fall since November.
“I think the main element impacting the gold and silver markets is the profit-taking in week-long liquidation (and) the strong U.S. dollar index,” said Jim Wyckoff, a senior market analyst at Kitco Metals.
Spot silver fell 0.9% to $30.97, platinum lost 1.1% to $938.50 and palladium slipped 1.5% to $906. All three metals’ prices looked set for monthly declines.
Source – Reuters
Gold prices ticked higher on Tuesday as focus turned to U.S. jobs and inflation data, that could influence the Federal Reserve’s policy decision in the face of rising economic growth concerns.
Spot gold (XAUUSD:CUR) +0.93% to $2,911.21 an ounce after hitting its lowest since March 3 in the previous session.
Meanwhile, worries over Trump’s tariff policies have also pushed safe-haven gold to a record high of $2,956.15 on February 24, as the metal is seen as a hedge against political risks and inflation.
Source – Seeking Alpha
An internal document seen by Reuters showed Codelco’s production reached 1.328 million tons in 2024, at the low end of its target range and just about 3,500 tons higher than the quarter-century low in 2023.
The worker, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to talk about internal operations, said Codelco has yet to fix bottlenecks in transporting minerals in the mine.
Cristian Cifuentes, an analyst at the Center for Copper Studies (CESCO), said that the Ministro Hales mine is still at reduced capacity and the ramp up of Chuquicamata Underground has been “slower than we all thought.”
Source – Reuters
