gold prices fell sharply on wednesday as the us dollar strengthened following the release of tuesday’s us consumer price index report showing inflation falling only slowly suggesting the federal reserve will need to raise borrowing costs further   gold futures for april gc00 gcj23 fell by 20 or 1 to 1846 per ounce on comex   silver futures for march si00 sih23 declined by 34 cents or 16 to 2153 per ounce   palladium for march pah23 delivery retreated by 1520 or 1 to 1451 per ounce while platinum for april plj23 declined by 11 or 12 to 928 per ounce   copper for march hgh23 declined by 6 cents or 15 to 4015 the us dollar advanced following the release of tuesday’s us cpi data as the numbers were generally hotter than expected prompting traders to position for the possibility that the federal reserve could push its policy interest rate past 5 “while inflation is clearly on a downward trend in the us tuesday’s figure showed the pace at which consumer prices are rising hasn’t slowed as much as the market was anticipating” said rupert rowling a market analyst at kinesis money “this readjustment of how many more rate hikes the fed is set to implement has prompted the price of gold to tumble as the prospect of interest rates rising diminishes the appeal of the precious metal as it doesn’t generate a yield for its holders with other interestbearing assets favored instead” the ice us dollar index a gauge of the dollar’s strength against a basket of rivals rose 05 to 10371 investors are now looking ahead to the release of us retail sales data for january