Gold exchange traded funds were off more than 3% early Wednesday in volatile action after a German court rejected lawsuits seeking to prevent Germany from participating in the bailouts of European countries.
SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) slipped 3.5% while gold futures traded around $1,815 an ounce. Prices jumped to a record above $1,920 an ounce on Tuesday, highlighting the recent swings in the precious metal.
“That was a crazy ride for gold Tuesday–there was a new record and then it dropped about $60 in just a few hours,” a Singapore-based trader told Dow Jones Newswires.
Gold prices were down more than $100 an ounce from the all-time high set on Tuesday.
“It was intra-day technical stops,” said a Sydney-based trader told Reuters. “It doesn’t reflect any changes in fundamentals.”
“Someone dumped a big position with little care, which set off stops and caused the price to cascade even lower,” another trader said.