Gold hits fresh multi-month tops, around $1545 region

Middle East tension spurs demand for perceives safe-haven assets.
A sharp fall in the US bond yields remained supportive of the move.
Investors now eye US ISM PMI, FOMC minutes for a fresh impetus.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

Gold continued scaling higher through the early European session on Friday and climbed to four-month tops, around the $1545 region in the last hour.

The precious metal built on its recent strong gains and gained some strong follow-through traction for the fourth consecutive session on the last trading day of the week amid reviving safe-haven demand. Escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East triggered a fresh wave of the global risk aversion trade and provided a strong boost to traditional safe-haven assets, including gold.

Gold benefits from escalating geopolitical tensions

Tensions in the Middle East intensified on reports that US airstrike killed Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general who led the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed that “severe retaliation” awaits those who killed the commander and raised prospects of a further escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The risk-off mood was evident from a sea of red across the global equity markets and reinforced by a sharp fall in the US Treasury bond yields, which further played their part in providing an additional boost to the non-yielding yellow metal. Meanwhile, a subdued US dollar price action did little to influence the dollar-denominated commodity or hinder the momentum to the highest level since September 5.

Moving ahead, Friday's release of the US ISM Manufacturing PMI will now be looked upon for some short-term trading impetus later during the early North-American session. The key focus, however, will remain on the latest FOMC monetary policy meeting minutes, which might play a key role in determining the commodity's next leg of a directional move.

Technical levels to watch

XAU/USD

Overview
Today last price	1543.4
Today Daily Change	15.11
Today Daily Change %	0.99
Today daily open	1528.29

Trends
Daily SMA20	1488.69
Daily SMA50	1480.73
Daily SMA100	1492.96
Daily SMA200	1422.92

Levels
Previous Daily High	1531.31
Previous Daily Low	1517.24
Previous Weekly High	1517.4
Previous Weekly Low	1477.55
Previous Monthly High	1525.1
Previous Monthly Low	1454.05
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1525.94
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1522.61
Daily Pivot Point S1	1519.92
Daily Pivot Point S2	1511.54
Daily Pivot Point S3	1505.85
Daily Pivot Point R1	1533.99
Daily Pivot Point R2	1539.68
Daily Pivot Point R3	1548.06

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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