Wednesday, March 28th, 2012, saw spot gold price head south dramatically at $18.70, from $1680.60 down to $1662.90 according to KITCO. This is following yesterday’s fall of $9.30 per ounce. The 1.04% drop in gold price is the continuation of a month-long trend. Over the last 30 days, spot gold has seen a steady decline in value, with $1635 per ounce its lowest mark.

Spikes were steadily high throughout the morning before dropping rapidly past noon. By 13:30 the price of gold dropped to its lowest mark of the day hitting $1655 before finding its way back up the rally.

Analysts have determined that the weakening US Dollar is a prime suspect. As the US Dollar loses value, it costs more to purchase the same denominated commodities, like gold. Stock market changes will often reflect the fact.

Although conditions have been placed for gold to break its $1800 per ounce average from earlier in the year, Goldman Sachs believes that the price of gold is suffering from previous expectations in this year’s growth.

This turn in trend comes after a two-day rally with gold stocks seeing its highest prices for COMEX gold futures, having a 3.9% overnight high culminating in a peak of $1,696.90.

Many traders watched as their shares lost value. Afternoon trading for Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) slid 2.2%, from $49.91 to $48.81 per share. $48.42 was the 12-month low (GDX) fell to early this month on March 20th. Shares also tumbled for Gold Fields (GFI) and IAMGOLD (IAG) with a turn of -3.2% and -2.0% respectively.

The on-going strike in Indian jewelers has weakened the demand for physical gold, who have refused trade due to a spike in import duty. India is the world’s largest consumer of gold and the trend was conclusive around all markets.

HSBC produced the following note concerning the tax, “The removal of the excise tax may be a step towards meeting some of the grievances listed by Indian jewelers in the wake of the government budget. Until the Indian jewelers reopen their shops, Indian gold demand will remain weak.”

As spot gold shows an almost steady climb from its 13:00 slope, hourly coverage gave hope to a rise before markets closed for the day.