NEW YORK—Precious metals finished a choppy session slightly lower Monday as the dollar showed some early strength against the euro.

Energy prices climbed after a militant attack on an oil platform in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer. Trading overall was quiet, with no economic data to pull the market one way or another.

By the afternoon, the dollar was down against most other major currencies, and precious metals prices closed well off their earlier lows. Investors tend to use gold as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar, and other precious metals often b...

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