Monday Open: $1,251.50
Weekly High: $1,254.00
Weekly Low: $1,236.90
Friday Close: $1,241.90

This week gold was significantly impacted by the first trade agreement between the U.S. and Iran in 30 years. Monday opened on a nearly 5-month low after the weekend’s surprising news.

Iran agreed to stop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for decreased sanctions from the U.S., Russia and other major nations. This was an unexpected turn of events, and caused most world stock markets to rally. Not only will there be more oil in the marketplace, but Iran just caused the Middle East to become a less volatile threat to world safety. Gold’s response, as an indirect key player against the dollar, was to drop.

Tuesday’s gold experienced losses continuing from Monday, though it did hit a midday high. Some U.S. home sales and economic data helped push gold down by the end of the day. Also, an article was released on Bloomberg that the UK Financial Conduct Authority is analyzing the price setting procedures of the London gold price fixing.

Wednesday was a fairly quiet day in the marketplace ahead of the Thanksgiving weekend. Some U.S. economic data was released, but it showed mixed results that in the end boosted the dollar, thereby lowering gold.

Thursday and Friday were sluggish as U.S. investors enjoyed their holiday weekend. Traders are anticipating the Federal Reserve meetings scheduled for December to gauge when bond tapering programs may begin.

Analysts speculate that 2013 might be the first year in a long run that gold could end lower than it began at the start of the year.