WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled higher on Tuesday, recovering well after exhibiting weakness in early New York session. Data showing weaker than expected U.S. retail sales data helped ease concerns about the outlook for Fed interest rates, and supported the yellow metal.
The dollar's slightly weakness aided gold's upmove. The dollar index, which climbed to 105.56 in the European session, dropped to 105.13 before recovering to 105.30, down just marginally from the previous close.
Gold futures for June ended up by $18.00 or about 0.78% at $2,330.40 an ounce.
Silver futures for June settled at $29.505 an ounce, up $0.180 or 0.61%. Copper futures for July climbed to $4.4875, gaining $0.0400 or about 0.9%.
Data from the Commerce Department showed retail sales in the U.S. crept up by 0.1% in May after dipping by a revised 0.2% in April. Economists had expected retail sales to rise by 0.2% compared to the unchanged reading originally reported for the previous month.
'Retail sales came in really light this morning and while that may be good news for inflation hawks, it could be the beginning of a slowdown in growth, which would hurt a lot more than a couple of interest rate cuts would help,' said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Independent Advisor Alliance.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve released a separate report showing industrial production increased by much more than expected in the month of May.
The Fed said industrial production jumped by 0.9% in May after coming in unchanged in April. Economists had expected industrial production to rise by 0.3%.
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