Silver drops nearly 2% on rising dollar

Silver prices lost nearly 2% on Thursday, near a 3-week low, due to worries over China's demand, while the US dollar rose against its peers.

Silver prices fell nearly 2.0% to $23.40 an ounce, after opening at $23.84, and hit a high of $23.96.

Silver closed lower by 0.1% yesterday, after weak data in China, and after recovery attempts from the 3-week low of $23.37 stopped.

Data showed on Wednesday that Chinese retail sales fell to the lowest level in a year in August.

The dollar index rose over 0.35% today against a basket of major rivals, which weighs down on dollar-denominated metals prices.

Investors are still buying up the greenback ahead of the US monthly retail sales and the weekly jobless claims data.