Gold plunges but major currencies quiet

A sharp plunge in gold prices to a five-year low shook financial markets Monday, but major currencies held up.

Gold fell as low as $1,072 per ounce in Asia trade from around $1,145 at the end of last week, before pulling up to $1,097 late in the day on New York's Comex board.

Traders said massive selling in China, where financial markets have been extremely turbulent generally, was behind the drop.

Still, the key currency pairs were little changed. The dollar was higher generally, but only by small amounts: it moved to $1.084 against the euro, and to 124.30 yen. The euro, meanwhile, rose to 134.55 yen.

"Commodities have been in the receiving end of the bear blitz in recent weeks," said Fawad Razaqzada of Forex.com.

"Traders have been worried about the impact of the appreciating US dollar and falling confidence in China, with the world's second-largest economy being a major consumer of gold, oil and iron ore among other basic materials."

2100 GMT     Monday       Friday

EUR/USD      1.0824      1.0830

EUR/JPY      134.55      134.38

EUR/CHF      1.0441      1.0415

EUR/GBP      0.6956      0.6945

USD/JPY      124.30      124.09

USD/CHF      0.9646      0.9615