Nickel prices drop $2000 per tonne on higher LME inventories

Precious metals prices were lower on Tuesday in New York. June gold dropped $3.90 to trade at $659.90 per troy ounce. July silver fell 14 cents to $12.99 per ounce, while platinum was $21 lower to $1,298.70 per troy ounce.

Meanwhile, on the London Metal Exchange, most base metals were also lower. The exception was lead, which added $5 on the session to $2,155 per tonne after going as high as $2,215 per tonne during the session. The gains came after China put a 10 percent tax on refined lead exported from June 1. China also imposed a new export tax on zinc.

Copper on the LME fell $10 to $7,270 per tonne. The price of nickel dropped $2,000, or almost 4 percent, to $48,550 per tonne after LME stockpiles were up by 402 tonnes to 5,388 tonnes during the day.