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NEW YORK - Gold futures tumbled for a third straight day on Tuesday after crude oil prices fell, lowering the investment appeal of the precious metal as a hedge against inflation.

Gold for August delivery dropped $5.50 to end at $923.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract hit an intraday low of $914 an ounce, its weakest level since June 26. The price has dropped 2.5 percent in three sessions. The metal is still up 10 percent this year.

Crude oil for August delivery closed at $136.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 3.8 percent, or $5.33, the biggest one-day loss in value since March 19. Oil tumbled $6.23 to an intraday low of $135.14 a barrel.

The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 raw materials has dropped 4.4 percent over the past two days.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of major currencies, was recently at 72.99, compared with 72.67 ahead of Bernanke's speech.

Also on the Nymex, silver, which is often used as a proxy for gold, rebounded after dropping as much as 2.1 percent. The price has gained 20 percent this year.

Silver futures for September delivery rose 3.5 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $17.955 an ounce. The metal fell 2.7 percent in the previous two sessions.

July platinum dropped $30.90 to $1,950.40 an ounce and September palladium sank $7.10 to $442.45 an ounce. September copper dropped 15 cents, or 4 percent, to $3.70 a pound.