Precious metals prices lower on dollar

Precious metals prices were lower Tuesday after the US dollar gained on the euro and other currencies.

The dollar was higher on new data showing that with automobile sales excluded from the equation, retail sales were up 0.5 percent in April, leading to the possibility that the Federal Reserve will break its string of interest rate cuts.

June gold dropped $14.70 to $870.20 per troy ounce in New York, while July silver was down 40 cents to $16.83 per troy ounce and July platinum plummeted $49.90 to $2,073.40 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices were mixed.

Copper prices also fell even though workers in Chile threatened to resume a strike that was called off last week after almost three weeks of protests.

July copper dropped 2 cents to $3.73 per pound in New York while three-month copper was down $25 to $8,235 per tonne in London.

Zinc prices, meanwhile, were at $2,300 per tonne in London after going as high as $2,340 per tonne earlier on speculation that some smelting capacity in China was hurt by the major earthquake there and that some closures in areas directly affected by the quake could be long-term.