NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Gold prices fell more than $4 an announce Tuesday on the heels of Alcoa's(AA Quote) earnings miss.
Gold had settled Monday up $12, and investors took the opportunity to lock in gains pressuring prices for the short term. Also weighing on the precious metal was Alcoa's earnings thud. The 5-cent miss has curbed investors' risk appetite for commodities and traders turned to traditionally safer assets like the U.S. dollar.
The U.S. dollar index was rising 0.09% to $77.08 while gold prices were slipping $4.30 to $1,147.10 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for February delivery, the most actively traded contract, has traded as high as $1,158.30 and as low as $1,144.30.
"The affect of the Alcoa earnings notice may be that it sends a little bit of a chill through all the people who were bullish on commodities," says Jeffrey Christian, managing director of CPM Group. "But I think it's a little bit of a chill and not a big one. ... I am looking for this to be relatively mild weakness in the gold price and silver price."
Silver prices were falling 17 cents to $18.52 while copper was down 5 cents to $3.38. Platinum was soaring $12 to $1,604. The first physically backed platinum U.S. ETF was introduced on Friday to positive reception and solid volume. ETFS Physical Platinum(PPLT Quote) was trading at $160.21 on strong investor demand.
Mining stocks, a more leveraged way to invest in gold, were struggling with broader equities. Barrick Gold(ABX Quote) and Newmont Mining(NEM Quote) were each down more than 1% to $40.96 and $49.41, respectively.
