Gold Spot Price Open: $1,673

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,656

Change in Gold Spot Price:+$17

Silver Spot Price Open: $30.72

Silver Spot Price Close: $30.15

Change in Silver Spot Price:-$0.57

Both silver and gold ended the week on a disappointing note when both metals closed the week on Friday. Gold was down about 17 dollars while silver dropped a little over half of a dollar.

In the early parts of the week a fiscal cliff resolution that was reached by Congress initially boosted the standing of precious metals, but talks of slowing down quantitative easing meant that the dollar was able to gain some ground on both gold and silver. The dollar continued to gain throughout the duration of the week and ended the first week of 2013 in a better position than nearly everyone would have anticipated.

If quantitative easing is slowed down this could spell further bad news for gold which has looked weak and sporadic as of late. As long as quantitative easing becomes less and less prevalent, investors will use gold as a safe-haven investment less and less as well. Hopefully the second week of 2013 will spell better news for precious metals.