"That pretty much set the tone. Silver took out some stops (stop-loss sell orders) under $7.22-7.23, with some bargain hunting seen at the $7.11 area," said James Quinn, commodities commentator at AG Edwards & Sons.
"Now, we're just waiting on Greenspan," he added. "If he's dollar-supportive, that's probably going to put pressure" on the metals.
By 9:31 am EST (1431 GMT), April delivery gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division was down $2.70 at $424.60 an ounce, moving between $427.40 and $424.
A COMEX metals floor trader said gold was mostly following the euro. "There was some really good trade selling, and some locals were covering their short positions," he said.
Gold briefly perked up after the open as the dollar declined on an Iran television report that an unknown aircraft may have fired a missile near the southern port city of Dailam in Bushehr province where a nuclear power plant is being built.
Investors also were waiting to see if Greenspan would sound optimistic about the massive US current account deficit, which has unnerved markets and pushed the dollar to record lows against the euro in 2004.
Spot gold was at $423.25/424 an ounce, down from Tuesday's New York close at $425.50/426.20. Wednesday's early fix in London was at $424.15.
March silver tumbled 18.5 cents to $7.175 an ounce, trading from $7.36 to $7.115.
Traders said silver was correcting lower after gaining 75 cents since last week during a technical bounce.
Spot silver was worth $7.18/21, off from $7.32/35 previously. Wednesday's fix was at $7.13.
NYMEX April platinum rose $5.10 to $858 an ounce, after a steep fall previously. Spot traded at $854/858. March palladium slipped $2.35 to $183 an ounce. Spot was stable at $180/184.