Gold Spot Price Open: $1,316

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,327

Change in Gold Spot Price: +$11

Silver Spot Price Open: $21.03

Silver Spot Price Close: $21.08

Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.05

Gold and silver spot values both ended the day and the quarter on a positive note as a declining US Dollar continues to fuel momentum that has been around for about two weeks now. When all was said and done, gold gained more than ten dollars while silver picked up closer to a nickel or so.

Precious metals spot values were given a boost to start out the week by a US Dollar that only seems to be growing weaker with each passing day. Just today, the USD Index fell below 80 and provided even more fuel to the risk-aversion fire. So long as violence in Iraq is anywhere near the forefront of investors’ attention it is likely that safe-haven demand for gold and silver will continue. With that said, the violence in Iraq is, at least for the moment, out of the headlines. No major developments took place over the weekend and even though ISIS rebels are continuing to lay claim to a number of Iraqi cities and towns, the violence has taken a step backwards, at least for the time being.

In Europe, annual inflation levels from May to June remained unchanged for another consecutive month. Despite the European Central Bank’s target annual inflation rate of around 2%, things have held steady at .5% for the last few months. This news had only a marginal effect on the market, but gave investors more reasons to believe that perhaps the ECB was too quick to make changes to monetary policy. For this reason, investors will be paying close attention when the European Central Bank commences their latest policy meeting on Thursday. At this juncture, no groundbreaking announcements are expected to come as a result of this week’s meeting.

Finally, because this week will end a day early for US traders as a result of the Independence Day holiday being celebrated on Friday, the United States’ key employment report for June will be made public on Thursday instead of the final day of the week.