Gold, silver prices down as platinum gains

Precious metals prices were mixed in New York on Thursday.

February gold dropped $5 to $802.30 per troy ounce on a stronger dollar and a report that the US dollar grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent, the best quarterly growth in four years.

With analyst sentiment expecting the dollar to turn its declines this year around, some believe that the price of gold could drop by as much as 15 percent to 20 percent in 2008.

March silver was 9 cents lower to $14.45 per troy ounce.

On the other hand, January platinum added $1.20 to $1,439.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, March copper added 6 cents to $3.09 per pound in New York helped by the Commerce Department report on third quarter growth, which went a long way to relieving worries that slower economic expansion could hurt demand for copper and other industrial metals.

December copper added nearly 6 cents to $3.0635 per pound.

Gains in copper prices were held back, however, by a separate report showing that not as many new homes were purchased in October as had been expected.

Three-month copper in London added $165 to $6,880 per tonne after going as high as $6,950 per tonne earlier in the session even though London Metal Exchange inventories added 375 more tonnes to a total of 188,600 tonnes.