Precious metals prices higher

Prices for precious metals were up Wednesday. Gold added 1.4 percent to $639.40 per troy ounce, while silver gained 4 percent to $10.48 per troy ounce and platinum was slightly higher to $1,219 per troy ounce. Palladium was even at $308 per troy ounce.

Base metals were mixed. Copper was down by 0.6 percent to $7,760 per tonne even though there were strike concerns in Canada. Nickel, however, dropped 2.9 percent to $23,550 per tonne even though inventories are down to less than two days of global consumption of the metal in London Metal Exchange warehouses.