Gold Crashes

On September 6th, the spot price of gold hit an intra-day high of $1,920.94 per ounce. Today, gold crashed over $100 per ounce. This was the third-largest daily percentage loss of the last 20 years.

Gold slumped more than 6 percent at one point — its biggest slide since the financial crisis in 2008 — to hit early-August lows as this week’s losses accelerated. The sell off came even as stock and oil markets stabilized after Thursday’s rout.

Adding to Thursday’s losses, gold is down almost 9 percent over the last two days, while silver has lost nearly 25 percent. In the case of gold particularly, it was the third-sharpest daily loss in the past 20 years.

“I’m sure talk of hedge fund liquidation is helping to pressure things, though there’s no confirmation of any single fund selling,” said Jonathan Jossen, an independent COMEX trader.

Despite its steep losses this week, gold remained up 16 percent year-to-date, thanks to gains from earlier months. But silver turned negative, with the spot price down almost 1 percent for the year.

By 2:45 p.m. EDT, the spot price of bullion was down 5.5 percent at $1,641 an ounce, after falling to a session low under $1,628. The move was more than 5 standard deviations beyond the normal one-day change. At $127 an ounce, the intraday move was the biggest on record in dollar terms.

Posted by on September 23rd, 2011 at 5:31 pm


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