For gold, a tussle between two groups of investors

Some analysts said gold prices would rebound soon as much of the selling that occurred among institutions had a short term focus, and did not reflect a decline in gold's fundamentals.

"In the gold market, the moment the weight of forced selling stops, the demand-supply balance will take precious metals higher and quickly," said Julian Phillips, an analyst at GoldForecaster.com.

Despite gold's recent weakness, it's "still doing an admirable job" in terms of wealth preservation, said Mark O'Byrne, executive director at Gold & Silver Investments Ltd. The metal's up 10% from its low in August 2007, when the financial crisis started. In contrast, the S&P 500 Index has slumped about 40%. Other commodities have seen even bigger losses. Crude oil has lost more than 60% from its peak prices.