COMEX gold plumbed a 15-week low near $390 an ounce early Wednesday as the dollar surged, while hedge funds jumped back in to buy silver betting that the price differential with gold would contract further.
"Gold's come back a little bit. There's been some of that ratio selling and there has also been some good fund buying here outright," a floor broker said of silver.
At 9:24 am EST (1424 GMT), April gold was off 70 cents at $393.20 an ounce, near the top of the early trading range of $393.90 to $390.20.
The recovering dollar pushed the euro to a 3-month low at $1.2102 overnight, discouraging gold buying by European investors and giving them a better sell price for dollar-denominated commodities.
May silver was up 8.0 cents at $6.81 an ounce, trading from $6.555 to $6.855 after tumbling 22.0 cents on Tuesday. It set a 6-year high Monday at $7.03.
Spot silver was trading at $6.75/77, up from $6.71/73 late Tuesday and Wednesday's London fix at $6.595.
April platinum was up $8.50 at $884.00 an ounce, as funds refreshed their bullishness after a 3.4 percent retreat the previous session from 24-year highs on Monday. Spot was last quoted at $882.00/887.00, up from the close at $873.00/878.00.
June palladium was $4.15 firmer at $245.00 an ounce. Spot fetched $238.00/243.00, up from the close at $237.50/243.50.