Gold for delivery in April dropped at the open on the Comex market in New York and kept declining – hitting a day low of $1,560.40 an ounce just before midday, down $81.90 an ounce or 5% compared to Wednesday’s close.

In early afternoon trade the price climbed back above the $1,600 level, before weakening again to trade $70 down by 4:30pm with 55 million ounces of gold changing hands.

On Monday gold hit a seven-year high of $1,704.30 an ounce and remains up $37 year-to-date on the back of record-breaking ETF buying. Global gold-backed ETFs had $4.9 billion or 84.5 tonnes of net inflows in February, boosting holdings to new all-time highs of 3,033 tonnes.

Wild swings
Thursday was the biggest intra-day drop in the price since April 15, 2013 when gold was also trading in the mid-$1,500s. Gold ended that day more than $87 below the previous closing – and never recovered on its way to $1,050 an ounce three years later.

In that session, 10 million ounces traded within 30 minutes – described as a “shock and awe” trading strategy by a short seller.

Gold hit a record $1,909 an ounce intra-day on 23 August 2011, but the next day suffered one of its few triple digit one-day losses when it plummeted $105, ending the week down more than 10% from the all-time high.

Adjusted for inflation, gold’s highest price point ever was on January 21, 1980 when the precious metal hit $850, only to plunge the very next day to $737.50, a 13% fall.

The biggest fall in percentage terms came in February 1983, when the yellow metal fell from $475 to $408.50 over two days, a 14% decline.