Monday, April 20 Open: $1,636.81
Low: $1,623.54
High: $1,667.30
Friday, April 27 Close: $1,664
Weekly Change: + 1.3%

This week saw gold prices begin with 2-week low and then end with a 2-month high. Monday held the week’s low in the afternoon, as the U.S. dollar stayed firm and crude oil weakened, then the exact opposite happened on Thursday, as the dollar started dropping and crude oil steadied, contributing to the rise in gold market values.

Tuesday, April 24th saw a slight spike in gold prices as India celebrated its largest gold-buying festival, Akshaya Tritivai. Though gold is traditionally bought in physical jewelry form, some of the younger, urban Indians are Internet savvy and prefer to buy gold in the form of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“Gold has become an asset class which is a must-have in many people’s portfolio,” said Gnananskhar Thiagarajan, the director at Commtrendz Research.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held its latest meeting to assess U.S. economic monetary policy. Not much was expected to change, as the Fed has been keeping interest rates at a historically low 0 – 0.25% level to reduce inflation and kickstart the economy. Still, there was some anxiety Wednesday morning as investors hoped for even more easing of monetary policy. After the report was released and the FOMC stated there would be no further easing measures, there was a knee-jerk pull out of the gold market, dropping the gold price per ounce by $10.

As of now, the conclusion seems to be that the U.S. economy is inching along enough not to warrant Fed policy at this time, but Fed Chairman did not deny the possibility of future policy if it becomes necessary.

He stated, “If appropriate and depending also on assessment of the costs and risks of additional policy actions, we remain entirely prepared to take additional balance sheet actions if necessary to achieve our objectives. So those tools remain very much on the table and we will not hesitate to use them, should the economy require that additional support.”

The gold price quickly bounced right back up Wednesday afternoon as the FOMC promised to keep zero per cent interest rates until at least 2014, and indicated the possibility of future policies.

“Gold is not at the forefront of anybody’s trading book at this moment,” stated George Nickas, a precious metals broker at the commodities firm INTL FCStone.