April gold futures rose 1.9% to settle at $1,386.80 an ounce, while COMEX gold for June delivery last traded up $21.50 at $1,382.60. The spot price  was last quoted up $29.90 at $1,383, according to numbers sourced from Kitco.

The Wall Street Journal reported the gold price was stablilizing due to purchasers of bullion, coins and jewelry buying physical metal at a discount.

For example, sales of US-minted gold coins jumped 83,500 ounces today, a rise of 65 percent compared to mid-day on Monday, WSJ said. Buyers in India, the world’s largest gold consumer, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, are also actively purchasing physical gold.

Meanwhile Eric Sprott, an experienced and vocal advocate of precious metals, said in a statement that he is still bullish on gold. He described the current gold meltdown as “panic selling” and as a “… value-buying [opportunity] that occur only a few times a decade.”

As quoted by The Globe and Mail:

The recent price action in gold can only be described as ‘panic selling’. Money managers and veteran traders know that when panic sets in and markets start moving rapidly, ‘investing’ logic drops by the wayside and money begins to flow one direction only. We have seen this over the last two trading days in long gold positions in the futures and ETF markets. This selling in turn drives prices lower, forcing those holders on margin to liquidate their positions. This process leads to even more selling as the pain of holding levered ‘under water’ positions becomes too great, causing traders to liquidate their positions. The light at the end of the tunnel for precious metals investors is that these events have been value-buying opportunities that occur only a few times a decade.