Gold recoiled from a record high in heavy volume on Thursday, as mounting recession fears fed a global stock market maelstrom that forced investors to liquidate bullion profits to cover losses elsewhere. Silver slumped over 7 percent too in one of the biggest risk asset sell-offs since early 2009.
Gold was down 0.6 percent at $1,651.40 an ounce by 3:33 PM EDT (1933 GMT), having earlier hit a record $1,681.67. Gold mining stocks measured by the Arca Gold BUGS index slumped over 6 percent. US gold futures for August delivery settled down $7.30 at $1,659 an ounce. Trading was frantic, with volume near 320,000 lots, set to be one of the strongest this year. Silver plunged 7 percent to $38.76.
Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund SPDR Gold Trust and the No 1 silver-backed ETF iShares Silver Trust both rose 0.4 percent on Wednesday from a day earlier. Platinum group metals fell in tandem with industrial commodities. Platinum dropped 2.9 percent to $1,724.75 an ounce, and palladium fell 5.4 percent to $748.47.