Gold Price Tumbles To Yearly Low

(August 8th, 2021 - Michael McCrae)

Trading under $1,700 following Friday's massive sell-off

Gold futures dropped sharply on Sunday evening at the start of the Asian trading session

Gold October futures dropped to low of $1,677 before recovering. As of 8:20 p.m. ET, gold is off 2.19% to $1,722. Silver October futures lost 3.5% to $23.74. Platinum was also off, losing 1.24% to $960 for October futures.

Spot gold is seeing it's worst two-day cash drop since April 2020 as the world started to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, noted Zero Hedge.

Gold and silver's selloff started Friday as markets reacted to stronger than expected employment data. U.S. equity markets hit a new record high Friday after the U.S. Labor Department said that 943,000 jobs were created in July, handily beating consensus expectations of 870,000 jobs. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, down from 5.9% in June. Wages also rose more than expected in July.

"I think we’re seeing traders in markets that closed before the carnage was clear on Friday now take action," said Independent Speculator's Lobo Tiggre in an email to Kitco Sunday evening. Tiggre said that the U.S. dollar in foreign exchange (DXY) has been the stronger variable for gold than interest rates this year.

"I expect a great deal of volatility up until the CPI number comes out and gives a clearer idea of where things stand."

Gold sentiment has turned bearish. In the Kitco Gold News Suvey published Friday, there was not one bullish vote among Wall Street analysts. Sentiment has dramatically shifted 180 degrees as there were no bearish votes in the previous survey.