Markets react very strongly to gold price movements. This is...

Markets react very strongly to gold price movements. This is because the price is a tangible input (quoted regularly) into valuation models. There may be other things that affect value and maybe to a greater extent, but are quoted far less frequently. For example: in Quarterly reports, corporate events, exploration surprises or resource/reserve updates.

Here is the interesting thing though, the ASX is closed on Monday for King's Birthday. We would expect gold equities to come off 6 to 7% if the market were open on Monday in line with overseas gold index indicators. This is a pretty normal reaction for our equities in the short term on large USD price movements. However, spot gold will trade for an entire day in offshore markets prior to the ASX reopening. We know what would happen if gold retreats further, the fall compounds, but what happens if the gold price strongly rebounds in overseas markets, say recovers $65 of the $80 fall? My observation is that the market looks to the most recent information and discards the prior (old news). In other words it focuses more on the momentum than the fundamental. In this case I'd imagine gold equities in oz would actually go up! So in answer to your question eyes to Monday night gold trading.