UNITED STATES December 30 2015 3:08 PM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): United States silver scrap prices declined on Tuesday, while silver futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange settled higher ahead of year-end.

The major silver scrap commodities on the Scrap Register Price Index traded up on Tuesday. The hallmarked silver scrap prices declined to $11.468 an ounce and non-hallmarked silver scrap prices gained to $10.179 an ounce.

The most active March silver contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up by 5.6 cents to $13.94 an ounce on Tuesday. 

Silver settled up mainly due to a softer dollar but a relentless slide in oil prices limited demand for the metal, often seen as an inflation-hedge. 

In the absence of strong trading cues and liquidity, gold is likely to remain range-bound for the remainder of the week, tracking oil and currency markets.