Daily Gold Update

Source: MarketWatch

San Francisco— Gold futures closed at their lowest level of the year Monday as a decline in oil prices and strength in the dollar sent the precious metal's prices down by more than 4% an ounce in electronic trading. Gold for December delivery dropped $36.50, or 4.2%, to close at $828.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell to a low of $824.50 an ounce in Globex electronic trading. That's gold futures' lowest price since late December. It traded at $830 on Globex as of 4:30 p.m. EDT.

The $850 level was psychologically and technically important for the gold market and a breach of that level "saw a massive wave of stop loss sell orders being executed — leading to gold plummeting more than 4%," said Mark O'Byrne, a director at Gold and Silver Investments Ltd. See full story.