Monday Open: $1,660.40
Weekly High: $1,665.60
Weekly Low: $1,650.90
Friday Close: $1,656.30
The holiday week made for slow trading, and the gold price didn’t fluctuate very much from Monday to Friday – an uncommon phenomenon lately as gold prices have been extremely volatile. All the factors that make gold volatile are still at work, specifically the fiscal cliff, but somehow, the holidays just always seem to make people less jittery than usual. The fiscal cliff deadline has been moved to January 3rd, so we can expect to see more market movement next week. All markets have suffered volatility due to the economic indecision of U.S. leaders. Last week, gold prices fell drastically and now they’re hovering in the mid-$1,600s, about $100 less than the stability of the $1,750 range just a few weeks ago.
Monday, Christmas Eve, the gold market slumped only a little – traders were most likely away from their desks, spending time with family. Tuesday, Christmas Day, the markets were closed as traders enjoyed time off for the holiday.
Wednesday, as the market reopened and people started returning to the world of work, the price of gold took a little upward turn on a low dollar, but trading volume was still fairly thin as it’s natural to want to stretch a holiday as far as possible.
Thursday’s trading was still thin, and the low volume of trading continued through to the end of the week. Thursday and Friday both reacted slightly to continued news of the fiscal cliff, but until more steady news becomes available, the market is fairly numb to the looming decision. The House of Representatives will meet one more time on Sunday night to try and reach an agreement with President Obama. Some pundits expect the January 3rd deadline to be missed, but for politicians to reach some sort of agreement mid-January.
All in all, the price of gold only slipped a net total of $4 this week on thin holiday trading. It seems to have turned into a bear market for gold, and despite recommendations from organizations like Citigroup and Morgan Stanley to pull out of gold, over 80% of gold executives see the price of gold rising in 2013, according to the PwC Gold Price Report. Other notable analysts expect gold to shoot above $2,200.