Gold tumbles 1.7%, lowest since mid July

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Reuters with CNBC

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Gold settled at its lowest level since mid-July on Tuesday, breaking through key support at August lows as the dollar hit a one-year high against the euro ahead of a European Central Bank meeting this week.
 
In the 10 minutes between 6:30-6:40 am EDT, gold's losses snowballed, with more than 10,000 lots—or one-third of the volume at the time—changing hands after the yellow metal fell below key technical support at $1,275 an ounce and the Aug. 21 low at $1,273.06, traders said.
U.S. gold futures settled $22.40 lower, or 1.7 percent, at $1,265.00 an ounce—its worst day since July 14. Spot gold, meanwhile, plunged 1.8 percent to $1,265 an ounce.
Speculation that the European Central Bank will do more to help a wobbly euro zone economy, combined with data showing encouraging U.S. manufacturing activities and construction spending, boosted the U.S. currency against the euro.

Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change	Volume
GOLD	Gold (Dec'14)	1266.70		-20.70	-1.61%	175709
GOLD/USD	Gold / US Dollar Spot	1265.42		-21.62	-1.68%	---
SILV/USD	Silver / US Dollar Spot	19.13		-0.32	-1.65%	---
SILVER	Silver (Dec'14)	19.185		-0.307	-1.57%	48835
PALL/USD	Palladium / US Dollar Spot	878.70		-24.70	-2.73%	---
PLAT/USD	Platinum / US Dollar Spot	1406.74		-9.96	-0.70%	---

 "It's when the dollar hits big numbers that gold gets punished and this is clearly one of those moments," Ross Norman, chief executive of bullion broker Sharps Pixley, said.

"There is a lot to be concerned about on the political and economic front (but) people tend to get inured to the idea of bad news and it doesn't affect them anymore." 

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The euro sank to a one-year low against the dollar on bets of more monetary stimulus by the ECB when it holds policy meeting on Thursday.
"The very strong dollar is definitely taking a toll on commodities, more than offsetting geopolitical tensions," said Bill O'Neill, partner at New Jersey-based commodities investment firm LOGIC Advisors.

—By Reuters with CNBC