May 1, 2011, 8:34 p.m. EDT
Silver dives sharply; gold down too
By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Silver prices fell sharply in early Monday trading in Asia, with the spot price plunging more than 10% in a matter of minutes, according to Kitco data.
At one point early Monday, the price dove 12% within 11 minutes, according to Dow Jones Newswires, which put the intraday high at $48.15 an ounce before a plunge to $42.21.
By 9:50 a.m. Sydney time (7:50 p.m. U.S. Eastern time), spot silver traded at $43.66 an ounce, recovering from below the $43 level earlier in the day.
Some reports pointed to low volume, due to holidays in some markets Monday, as exaggerating the move, and said the sharp drop pointed to a speculative move against the silver price.
On the futures market, silver for July delivery was down 9.6% at $43.965.
Gold hit too
Gold prices also fell, though by a less dramatic margin. Spot gold moved above $1,570 an ounce, only to drop below $1,550 in tandem with the move for silver.
By 9:50 a.m. in Sydney, spot gold had rebounded somewhat to $1,555.40.
Dow Jones Newswires measured the early drop at 2.2% — from a fresh all-time high of $1,576.52 down to $1,542.61 — saying the drop occurred just ahead of silver’s early Monday dive.
Benchmark gold futures for June delivery settled at $1,556.40 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, but the contract was at $1,554.50 in electronic trade early Monday.
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
| 