Breaking: Gold crashes below $1,600, margin calls cited

Yohay Elam FXStreet

Gold is trading below $1,600 despite the risk-off sentiment stemming from coronavirus fears.

Experts talking to Bloomberg have said that the yellow metal has been hurt by margin calls as several funds needed the cash amid the stock market crash. The metal is used to a liquid asset that occurs in the equity market, according to Standard Chartered.

Others say that overbought conditions have triggered profit-taking.

Beforehand, safe-haven flows have pushed XAU/USD to a seven-year high of $1,689.

Gold has reached hit a low under $1,585 at the time of writing. It is hitting the 200 Simple Moving Average on the four-hour chart, suggesting a potential bounce. However, the Relative Strength Index is still above 30, thus outside oversold conditions.

Nevertheless, after this sharp correction, XAU/USD has room to rise, especially if Covid-19 remains a scare.

See Gold may top $1,800 as coronavirus in Italy propels market panic – Interview with Kathleen Brooks

-- more to come

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

EUR/USD climbs to daily highs near 1.1820

EUR/USD now picks up pace and advances to the area of daily peaks north of the 1.1800 barrier at the end of the week. The pair’s decent move higher comes against the backdrop of a generalised lack of direction in the FX galaxy and the mild offered stance in the US Dollar.

GBP/USD trims losses, retests 1.3460

After briefly challenging its key 200-day SMA near 1.3440, GBP/USD now manages to regain some balance and revisit the 1.3460 zone on Friday. Cable’s pullback comes as the selling pressure on the Greenback gathers traction, reigniting some recovery in the risk-linked space.

Gold flirts with four-week highs past $5,200

Gold extends its rebound, climbing for a third consecutive session and pushing back above the $5,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The move higher continues to draw support from lingering geopolitical tensions and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, both of which are keeping safe-haven demand firmly in play.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate with short-term cautious bullish bias

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are consolidating near key technical areas on Friday, showing mild signs of stabilization after recent volatility. BTC holds above $67,000 despite mild losses so far this week, while ETH hovers around $2,000 after a rejection near its upper consolidation boundary.

Breaking: US and Israel attack Iran, risk aversion to sweep global markets

Early Saturday, United States (US) President Donald Trump announced that the US had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, following Israel’s pre-emptive missile attacks against Tehran.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.