By Peter Brimelow
03-Oct (MarketWatch) — Gold bugs have been shaken by the size of what they see as a manipulative bear raid, but they still believe Asian off-take underpins the market.

Gold had been declining for several days, but in the early Asian hours of Monday Sept. 26, it was struck a terrific blow, plunging $130 in a few hours before recovering.

As Australia’s The Privateer noted thoughtfully this weekend: “That plunge … brought the gold price down pretty close to its 40-week (200-day) moving average. Gold hasn’t been below that 200-day moving average by any more than a few [U.S. dollars] since late January 2009.”

…Taking the rather more calming long view, Bianco Research on Tuesday put out a piece noting that, considering the nine major breaks since gold started rising in 2001 in percentage terms, the break from the Sept. 6 Comex December gold $1,924 high to last Monday was the second shallowest, and was less severe than the previous five.

In gold, a $100 move is not what it was!

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PG View: The bolded analysis above suggests that — on a percentage basis — the recent correction is really not that big a deal.