(Kitco News) Two completely different mints on the other sides of the globe are reporting very contrasting coin gross sales outcomes from 2019.
The Perth Mint in Australia noticed a surge in gold coin gross sales in direction of the top of 2019, whereas the U.S. Mint reported dwindling gross sales all year long.
The December information from the Perth Mint revealed that it noticed a 45% uptick in gold product gross sales compared to the earlier month.
There was a complete of 78,912 ounces of gold cash and minted bars offered in December, marking the very best month-to-month improve since October 2016, Perth Mint mentioned on Wednesday. The year-over-year comparability reveals that gross sales had been up 170%.
Gold costs reached file excessive ranges in Australian greenback phrases final yr, topping AUD $2,000 for the primary time ever.
“The rally in treasured metals is a continuation of a robust upside transfer which might be dated again to This fall 2018 when a pointy decline in fairness markets reignited demand for gold and different safe-haven belongings. Since then, gold has rallied by greater than 30% in Australian greenback phrases,” Perth Mint mentioned in its weblog publish.
The Australian mint mentioned it noticed elevated demand firsthand final yr, highlighting Germany because the essential space the place the demand was coming from.
“In troy ounce phrases, December 2019 demand for our Australian gold bullion cash and minted bars neared 79,000 ounces – up 45% on the earlier month. Pushed by robust gross sales of Kangaroo and Lunar cash, notably in Germany, the variety of ounces offered in December 2019 elevated 170% in comparison with the identical interval in 2018,” Perth Mint mentioned.
The second-best month for gold gross sales was November with Perth Mint promoting 54,261 ounces of gold cash and minted bars.
When it got here to silver gross sales, December’s figures had been at 1,361,723 ounces offered, up 32.5% month-on-month and up 97% year-on-year.
Compared to Australia’s constructive outcomes, the U.S. Mint noticed declining gross sales of its American Eagle gold coin in 2019. Although gross sales began robust at 65,500 ounces offered in January, the numbers shortly fell, dropping to simply 2,000 ounces offered in December.
General, the U.S. Mint offered a complete of 152,000 ounces of the gold American Eagle cash in 2019, marking the bottom stage on file because the Mint started recording the information in 1986.
Gross sales of silver American Eagle cash had been the worst since 2007, with solely 14,863,500 ounces offered in 2019, down from the already weak determine of 15,700,000 reported in 2018.
Analysts pointed to the rallying U.S. inventory market as a potential purpose why buyers selected to not spend money on the bodily gold cash.
“A lot of what has most likely been taking place is that there have been higher returns in different markets, equities particularly. S&P 500 is up 30% year-on-year,” RBC Wealth Administration managing director George Gero instructed Kitco Information final week.
On high of that, the robust U.S. greenback might need been accountable for such low gross sales.
“Final yr has been indicative of the truth that the U.S. greenback has been rather a lot stronger than anybody would have thought. Due to the commerce challenge, you had China’s forex not carry out notably nicely … We have not seen as a lot bodily demand as a result of, in different currency-terms, it appeared costly,” mentioned TD Securities head of world technique Bart Melek.
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