It’s Monday, Japanese markets are closed and the gold price has just suffered a mini “flash crash”.

At 11.25am AEST the spot price suddenly tumbled 3.8%, or $43, to $1087 an ounce.

spot gold julyg 20

While it has since recovered around one third of its decline, it is now trading at the lowest level seen since March 2010.

The moves in gold are being replicated across the precious metals space with platinum and palladium also lower by 5% and 3% respectively.

At this point it appears as though stop-loss orders, accompanied by thin market conditions due to the public holiday in Japan, are the main catalysts behind the sudden price decline.

Gold stocks on Australia’s ASX 200 are currently under pressure with ASX All Ordinaries gold index down 7.91%, on track for its largest one-day percentage decline since December 1, 2014.

The Australian dollar has also dipped 0.19% to .7356.

As reported by Business Insider