Gold: Off 10-day lows, focus on the Fed

Gold has recovered from 10-day lows seen on Friday but may lack clear direction on caution ahead of the FOMC rate decision, due Wednesday.
The yellow metal will likely take a beating if the Fed sounds more hawkish-than-expected, squashing bets of a Fed rate hike pause in 2019.

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

Gold is currently trading at $1,237 per Oz, having hit a low of 10-day low of $1,233 on Friday.

The yellow metal fell close to 2 percent last week as the American dollar - its biggest nemesis - picked up a haven bid last Monday and rose to a fresh 2018 high of 97.71 on Friday.

The greenback will likely extend the rally later this week, sending gold lower, if the Federal Reserve sounds less dovish-than-expected. Markets expect the central bank to hike rates by 25 basis points (priced in) and signal a wait-and-see approach for 2019.

A few months ago, the central bank signaled three rate hikes for 2019, something which markets did not buy.

Gold, however, could rise well above the 200-day moving average (MA) hurdle of $1,256 if the Fed cements expectations of a rate hike pause in 2019, sending the treasury yields and the US dollar lower.

Gold Technical Levels

XAU/USD

Overview:
    Today Last Price: 1237.79
    Today Daily change: -67 pips
    Today Daily change %: -0.0541%
    Today Daily Open: 1238.46
Trends:
    Previous Daily SMA20: 1231.6
    Previous Daily SMA50: 1226.21
    Previous Daily SMA100: 1213.59
    Previous Daily SMA200: 1231.25
Levels:
    Previous Daily High: 1243.19
    Previous Daily Low: 1233
    Previous Weekly High: 1250.85
    Previous Weekly Low: 1233
    Previous Monthly High: 1237.4
    Previous Monthly Low: 1196.4
    Previous Daily Fibonacci 38.2%: 1236.89
    Previous Daily Fibonacci 61.8%: 1239.3
    Previous Daily Pivot Point S1: 1233.24
    Previous Daily Pivot Point S2: 1228.02
    Previous Daily Pivot Point S3: 1223.05
    Previous Daily Pivot Point R1: 1243.43
    Previous Daily Pivot Point R2: 1248.4
    Previous Daily Pivot Point R3: 1253.62

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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