Gold plunged to its lowest level since January Wednesday as a surging dollar sapped demand for precious metals. Gold for June delivery lost $57.90 to settle at $1,614.10. That's a drop of 3.5 percent and the biggest one-day fall for gold since Feb. 29. Silver fell even more, losing $2.22 to $31.044 an ounce, a loss of 6.7 percent. The dollar rose sharply against the euro and other currencies after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting released late Tuesday suggested that the bank wasn't ready to take more action to push interest rates lower. The dollar reached its strongest level in almost three weeks against the euro. The euro traded at $1.31, down almost a penny from Tuesday. With the dollar rising so much against other currencies, investors had less appetite for gold. Investors often hold precious metals when they think the value of the dollar will fall, so when the dollar rises they tend to dump metals. Platinum for July delivery fell $61.90, or 3.7 percent, to $1,598.60 an ounce. Palladium for June delivery fell $26.85, or 4.1 percent, to $632.75 an ounce, and copper for May delivery fell 12.85 cents to $3.7905 a pound. Prices for agricultural commodities were mixed. In May contracts, wheat fell 18.75 cents to $6.3925 a bushel, and corn fell 1.5 cents to $6.5675 a bushel.
