CHICAGO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose on Tuesday as investors reacted to U.S. January consumer price index (CPI) data.

The most active gold contract for April delivery rose 1.9 U.S. dollars, or 0.1 percent, to close at 1,865.4 dollars per ounce.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Tuesday that U.S. CPI, an important inflation indicator, rose 0.5 percent in January month on month, the biggest increase in three months and higher than the 0.4 percent expected by economists. Year on year, the January CPI slowed to 6.4 percent from 6.5 percent in December, the lowest level in 15 months and higher than market expectation of 6.2 percent.

Gold prices seesawed between losses and gains following the release of the inflation data. Some traders hold that the risks that the Federal Reserve will have to remain aggressive in raising rates are elevated, while others are confident that the peak in rates will be reached this summer.

Richmond Federal Reserve President Tom Barkin said in a Bloomberg television interview on Tuesday that he expects inflation to have a lot more persistence than everyone wants. "Inflation is normalizing, but it is coming down slowly," Barkin said.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan said in a speech at Prairie View A&M University on Tuesday that there is a risk that the Federal Reserve does too little on tightening monetary policy, and the economy remains overheated and the central bank fails to keep inflation in check.

"That could trigger a self-fulfilling spiral of unanchored inflation expectations that would be very costly to stop," Logan said.

Silver for March delivery rose 2.1 cents, or 0.1 percent, to close at 21.873 dollars per ounce. Platinum for April delivery fell 20.2 dollars, or 2.11 percent, to close at 939.2 dollars per ounce.