gold and silver prices continued to soften on tuesday as a strong dollar and higher governmentbond yields continued to take their toll on precious metals the strong dollar and higher bond yields have sapped precious metals prices this year as investors have generally preferred the higher yields inspired by the federal reserves interestrate hikes gold and silver market bulls continue to be squelched by the strong us dollar on the foreign exchange market and generally rising government bond market yields said jim wyckoff senior analyst at kitco however gold and silver remained lower on tuesday even as the dollar and treasury yields pulled back the ice us dollar index was off 02 at 111 while the yield on the 10year treasury note was down 95 basis points at 4132