Gold consolidates in a range, below $1290 level

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

• The USD remains supported by upbeat US economic data and capped gains.
• Further escalation in the US-China trade tensions helped limit the downside.

Gold seesawed between tepid gains/minor losses and remained confined in a narrow trading band through the mid-European session on Friday.

A combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus to the commodity and led to a subdued/range-bound price action on the last trading day of the week. The US Dollar held steady near two-week tops and remained well support by Thursday robust US economic data, which eventually dented demand for the dollar-denominated commodity.

However, reports, suggesting that China is no longer interested in negotiations with the US, further fueled concerns about a full-blown trade war between the world's two largest economies and weighed on investors' sentiment. The cautious mood was evident from a fresh leg of a downfall in equity markets, which underpinned the precious metal's safe-haven status and might help limit deeper losses.

Moving ahead, today's relative thin US economic docket - featuring the only release of the Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment Index for May seems unlikely to produce any meaningful trading opportunities and hence, the broader market risk sentiment/USD price dynamics might continue to act as key determinants of the commodity's momentum on Friday.

Technical levels to watch

XAU/USD

Overview
Today last price	1286
Today Daily Change	0.37
Today Daily Change %	0.03
Today daily open	1285.63

Trends
Daily SMA20	1282.55
Daily SMA50	1291.82
Daily SMA100	1296.88
Daily SMA200	1257.42

Levels
Previous Daily High	1307.3
Previous Daily Low	1284.2
Previous Weekly High	1291.45
Previous Weekly Low	1275.1
Previous Monthly High	1310.7
Previous Monthly Low	1265.6
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1293.02
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1298.48
Daily Pivot Point S1	1277.45
Daily Pivot Point S2	1269.28
Daily Pivot Point S3	1254.35
Daily Pivot Point R1	1300.55
Daily Pivot Point R2	1315.48
Daily Pivot Point R3	1323.65

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

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