Metals prices fall with crude oil prices

Precious metals prices were lower in afternoon trade in New York on Thursday after the dollar gained on the euro and the yen and oil prices were down by more than $4 per barrel as demand for metals as an investment declined.

August gold traded $24 lower to $881 per troy ounce while July silver was down 91 cents to $16.51 per troy ounce and July platinum dropped $73.90 to $1,993 per troy ounce.

Earlier, palladium had dropped $3.70 to $436.05 per troy ounce in mid-morning trade after going as low as $433 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices also declined, mostly on sharp increases in inventories.

Copper was down 14 cents to $3.56 per pound in New York while three-month copper fell $205 to $7,890 per tonne in London after London Metal Exchange stockpiles added 600 tonnes to 126,400 tonnes, bringing inventories up by 15 percent in the past month.

Lead inventories added 1,550 tonnes on the session to 65,125 tonnes in LME warehouses and the metal dropped $76 to $1,952 per tonne.

Tin prices dropped by more than 10 percent, losing $2,600 on the session to $21,100 per tonne, while nickel was down by $300 to $22,200/$22,250 per tonne, zinc was $140 lower to $1,980 per tonne and aluminium dropped $80 to $2,880 per tonne in London.