Gold Spot Price Open: $1,566

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,479

Change in Gold Spot Price:-$87

Silver Spot Price Open: $27.82

Silver Spot Price Close: $25.89

Change in Silver Spot Price:-$1.93

Gold and silver both took huge hits on Friday as very few investors anticipated such a large drop-off. At the end of the day gold was down about 87 dollars while silver lost about a dollar and 93 cents.

There was but one major reason why both gold and silver took such massive losses on Friday, and believe it or not it is Cyprus. While many had thought that we had heard the last news from the small Mediterranean island they now are selling off a large majority of their gold holdings. This massive sell-off has caused other investors also to want to get rid of their holdings.

It seems as though the situation in Cyprus had bigger implications than anyone could have anticipated from such a small nation. This just goes to show that if one small island country can cause this much financial havoc across the globe, what would happen if a more prominent, larger country were to be put in a similar situation as Cyprus. Many European nations are in financial disarray and this Cyprus pitfall should be a huge wake up call to European leaders as well as the IMF.