Battle wounds Gold has now fallen about 22% from its May peak above $730, pulling other metals with it. Silver was the biggest decliner Tuesday, with its July contract dropping $1.44, or 13%, to close at $9.625 an ounce after a low of $9.60, a level it hasn't seen since Feb. 23. The plummeting silver price has "nothing to do with a bubble or related driver," according to Paul Mladjenovic, a silver analyst at PM Financial Services in Hoboken, N.J. "There are some very large traders [who are] massively shorting silver, causing an artificial plunge in the silver price," he said, adding that "the situation is great need of scrutiny and enforcement by the CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission]."
