The prices of gold and silver have plummeted, sparked by reports US President Donald Trump is set to announce a new US Federal Reserve chair.
At its worst, the price of gold declined more than 5 per cent overnight, and silver plunged more than 8 per cent.
Gold reached a record high of $US5,594.82 ($7,989.18) earlier this week.
But by 9pm AEDT today, it was trading at $US5,028 — down 10 per cent from that high.
Analysts say this afternoon's trading was a classic pullback in a bull market for gold.
"Gold has been overbought and got ahead of itself," AMP head of investment strategy Shane Oliver told the ABC.
"These rises have been exponential.
"It's been vulnerable to a pullback."
Silver was also caught in the precious metals sell-off.
The shiny metal price had collapsed 17 per cent in early London trade, pushing it to be down 20 per cent since its all-time high of $US120 earlier this week.
While there is no technical definition of a market "crash", it is generally considered to be a fall of 20 per cent or more from a recent high.
News broke today that Mr Trump was on the cusp of announcing a new chair for the US Federal Reserve.
"I'll be announcing the Fed chair tomorrow morning," Mr Trump told reporters Thursday night, local time, as he went into a screening of Melania, a documentary about his wife.
"It's going to be somebody that is very respected, somebody that's known to everybody in the financial world.
"And I think it's going to be a very good choice. I hope so."
Kevin Warsh tipped as new chair
Current Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's term expires on May 15.
Mr Trump will choose Mr Powell's replacement, and has been vocal in recent months about his desire for a chair who will be eager to cut interest rates.
Mr Powell has insisted on changing interest rates depending on the economic data, rather than any political motive.
Given elevated inflation, this week he chose to keep US interest rates unchanged.
Bloomberg today reported that Kevin Warsh was the most likely candidate on the shortlist to be picked.
Mr Warsh is a US financier and bank executive who served as a Federal Reserve governor from 2006 to 2011.
And betting markets now have him at an implied 94 per cent probability to be the next chair.
However, Mr Warsh is seen by the financial markets as less willing to cut interest rates than the other most likely candidate, the director of the National Economic Council of the United States, Kevin Hassett.
Mr Oliver said a more "hawkish" pick in Mr Warsh had financial markets concerned that interest rates may not go as low as they might under Mr Hasset.
Higher-than-expected future US interest rates saw the US dollar rise, the Australian dollar dive, as well as precious metal prices.
The price of gold and silver often moves inversely to the value of the US dollar.
"[The Trump announcement] provided a trigger for the pullback," Mr Oliver said.
