Monday Open: $1,410.60
Weekly High: $1,417.00
Weekly Low: $1,378.40
Friday Close: $1,378.40

Gold experienced another faltering week, failing to break through the $1,350-$1,400 price bracket. Some traders were hoping to see the yellow metal push through by the end of week, but other forecasters are touting the end of the gold bubble and prices dropping down to $1,000 in the near future.

Monday saw slight gains as the dollar hit a three-week low. The whole week was primarily characterized by gold’s relationship to the dollar. China and Japan also lended some economic data to the short rise in gold at the beginning of the week, with stock markets from these countries fluctuating slightly.

Tuesday turned this gain around on a technical correction; traders started pulling out the market after Monday’s advance. Wednesday was also noneventful for the price of gold, as the market saw some gains, but was primarily focused on anticipating the Federal Reserve’s announcements on Thursday and U.S. monthly economic reports due on Friday.

The Federal Reserve meeting contained no surprises, and therefore did not affect the gold market. Thursday, however, spiked up to the week’s high as traders expected poor results from Friday’s jobs reports. A lower dollar supported this move, and the U.S. stock market was generally not performing well on Thursday, adding more reason to buy back into the safe haven of gold.

Yet, Friday undid all of these hopeful advances when the U.S. economic report announced growth in the manufacturing sector and one basis point of a percentage higher on the unemployment rate (now at 7.6%) as more people have returned to looking for work. Gold maintained steady Friday morning, ahead of the reports, but this precious metal quickly fell in the afternoon as the rally some hoped for did not happen.