Metals prices mixed on session

Precious metals prices were mixed in New York on Wednesday as the US dollar again managed to make headway against the euro following its repeated declines during the past couple of weeks.

December gold dropped 60 cents to $735.70 per troy ounce as analysts said they expected to see more declines in the short term but that the dollar will likely remain weak over the next two or three quarters and one opinion is that it isn’t out the realm of possibility that gold could climb to $1,000 per troy ounce by the second quarter of next year.

On the other hand, December silver was 2 cents higher to $13.47 per troy ounce while January palladium climbed $13.90 to $1,368.90 per troy ounce.

Meanwhile among base metals, copper added 5 cents to $3.76 per pound in New York after climbing as high as $3.77 per pound, its highest level since the beginning of May, earlier in the session, while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was $102 higher to $8,262 per tonne as a Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU) official said that the strike in Peru could cut this year’s production by 10 percent.

Lead also gained ground on the LME, adding 3.1 percent to $3,625 per tonne after reaching $3,640 per tonne earlier in the session, a new record, on a mine fire in Australia.