Platinum gains over $7 per troy ounce

Precious metals prices were higher on Friday, with August gold $4.20 higher in early afternoon trade in New York, to $654.38 per troy ounce.  Earlier in the day, the price of Gold had been up to $657 per troy ounce.

September silver was at $12.76 per troy ounce, a gain of 18 cents, after being at $12.82 earlier.

Platinum prices were also up, adding $7.30 to trade at $1,311.10 in New York.

The gains in precious metals prices came after the dollar slid against the euro and sterling.  In addition, higher oil prices helped the gains.

Among base metals, meanwhile, copper was trading even in early afternoon trade in New York at $3.59 per pound.  That was a bit higher than it had traded earlier in the session.

In London, three-month copper was down $35 to $7,825 per tonne as inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses dropped further, to a total of 105,475 tonnes.

Some strikes continued at Latin American copper mines and others are threatened.  The strikes are or will affect mines in Chile, Peru and Mexico on issues including wages and proposed limitations on unions.