Precious Metals Mixed, XAU Snaps 3-Day Win Streak

Gold and silver futures fluctuated between gains and losses on Wednesday as precious metals continued to consolidate following last week’s rally.

COMEX gold for December delivery – the most actively-traded contract – settled higher by $3.20, or 0.2%, at $1,616.00 per ounce after trading in a range between $1,605.90 and $1,619.60 per ounce.

Silver futures for September delivery finished lower by $0.01 at $28.08 per ounce on the COMEX after trading between $27.66 and $28.21 per ounce.

VTB Capital wrote in a note to clients that within the gold market, “The investor side is likely to remain interested for as long as sentiment is upbeat and peripheral bond yields in the [euro zone] stay off their summer peaks. It might seem illogical, but so far gold has failed to attract any safe-haven inflows, instead trading as any other risk asset and in line with the broader market sentiment.”

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While precious metals hugged the flatline, shares of most gold and silver producers closed modestly lower.  The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) ended down by 0.4% at 155.50, thereby snapping a three-session winning streak and cutting its advance this week to 3.4%.

Among gold miners, two of the largest decliners were IAMGOLD (IAG) and AngloGold Ashanti (AU) – which fell by 3.6% to $11.28 and by 2.3% to $33.80 per share.  IAMGOLD was downgraded by Credit Suisse to Neutral from Outperform based on the firm’s revised valuation methodology.

As for silver stocks, Pan American Silver (PAAS) and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) dropped by 0.5% to $15.52 and by 0.5% to $13.08 per share.