Gold tumbled more than 3 percent on Thursday from a record hit overnight in Asian trading, as a rebound in US stocks, an increase in trading margins and technical signals spurred traders to take profits from the biggest rally since 2008. Prices slumped more than $60 from their peak in one of the biggest daily swings ever.
Yet analysts showed no signs of revising their overwhelmingly bullish view of gold, up nearly 20 percent since June as investors seek safer havens amid global debt crises and a darkening economic outlook. Concerns of a deepening European crisis and the possibility of distress among French banks helped propel gold to a record $1,813.79 an ounce in Asian trading.
Those worries are unlikely to disappear soon, analysts said. The spot price for bullion fell 1.6 percent to $1,766 an ounce at 12:21 pm EDT (1621 GMT), off a low of $1,754.05. August gold futures fell 0.95 percent to $1,767.40 an ounce. The intra-day trading range stood at $63 an ounce, the sixth-widest in Reuters data going back to 1983. Tuesday's range was the fifth biggest ever. COMEX gold trading volume looked set to cool after Tuesday's record-breaking 437,000 lots, with slightly more than 265,000 lots having traded by midday.