Most-active U.S. gold futures fell below $1,500 an ounce for the first time in nearly two years Friday in a move that traders are describing as largely technical in nature, with sell stops hit as the market slipped first through last week’s longtime lows and then support at the lows that had held since September 2011.

Otherwise, the decline does not appear to be fueled by any major breaking news, observers said. In fact, the slide is coming on a day when U.S. economic data has been soft and equities are on the defensive.

“It’s a liquidation event,” said Frank Lesh, broker and futures analyst with FuturePath Trading. “The market is forcing people out.”

Several traders reported that sell stops have been triggered. These are pre-placed orders activated when certain chart points are hit, often to kick traders out of positions to limit losses or book a profit, although market participants can also use stops to establish fresh positions based on the technical picture of a market.

Just after 11 a.m. EDT, gold for June delivery was down $70.30 to $1,494.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal hit a low of $1,491.40 that was the contract’s lowest level since April 2011. May silver was down $1.612 to $26.085 an ounce.

“It looks like purely a technical move,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior commodities broker with RJO Futures. “Fundamentally, you there is talk things (U.S. economic conditions) are getting better. But yet, you had retails sales miss pretty big today and we’ve had a lot of misses on (recent economic) numbers. And, the whole debt situation hasn’t gone away.”