Gold and silver off day's highs after higher than expected US inflation

Gold and silver dropped off day's highs in the US session on 24 March as inflation rate of the world's largest economy rose more than expected in February, pushing the greenback off day's low.

The precious metals had been rising over the past seven days due to the correction in the US dollar during then.

The USD index had touched a 12-year high of 100.40 on 13 March before falling to an 18-day low of 96.39 early 24 March in Asia. After the US CPI data, the gauge rebounded to 97.01.

The core consumer price inflation of the US rose to 1.7% from a year earlier in February compared with the January reading of 1.6%, which analysts had been expecting to repeat in the second month of the year as well.

Month on month, the index was kept the January pace of 0.2% rise against market expectations of a drop to 0.1%.

Gold had risen more than 4% from the four-month low of $1,148 touched on 17 March and silver rallied 9.6% from the multi-month low of $15.6 touched on 11 March.

On 24 March, the yellow metal dropped to $1,185 from the day's high of $1,195, while silver fell to $16.82 from the previous close of $16.95.

The better than expected Eurozone PMI data for March, released by Markit/HSBC, helped strengthen the euro, capping gains in the US dollar.

With hawkish data from both US and Eurozone, the dollar is unlikely to move sharply in any direction until there are bigger events or data resetting the interest rate view for any or both sides.