Precious Metals: Gold, Silver, Platinum in Saudi Arabia!

We have mixed numbers for the metals this week, with gold up 1% to $1,883, and silver taking a breather down 4% to $23.60.  Platinum is down a fraction to $1,106, and palladium has climbed 2% over the last week to $1,825.

From a year ago today, we have 3/4 of the metals higher.  Gold is up 3%, silver is 4% higher, platinum is the best performer up 13% (discussed below), and palladium was down 6% for the year.

Silver may outperform gold this year; we’ll see. As central banks continue to accumulate gold, a 194-million-ounce deficit for silver continued to develop in 2022. Platinum had a year-over-year supply deficit of 9% due in part to power outages and flooded mines in platinum-producing and -refining countries.  We will see if those difficulties continue to support platinum prices in 2023.

Saudi Arabia announced a new initiative for their sovereign wealth fund as they seek to diversify away from oil production and buy treasury bills. Instead, they expanded into the global mining sphere and announced $1 Trillion of undeveloped commodity resources, including copper and gold. Alternative energy and silver demand appear here to stay.