Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD nears 200-hour SMA

Gold struggles to cross above the 200-hour SMA hurdle.
Vaccine optimism keeps haven demand for gold under check.

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

Gold is currently trading near $1,872 per ounce, having nearly tested the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) of $1,876 a few minutes before press time. The buyers failed to establish a foothold above that average on Friday.

Despite the latest bounce from the long-held support of $1,850, the immediate bias remains neutral. That's because the hourly chart descending trendline is still intact. A break above that diagonal resistance would open the doors to $1,900.

The odds of a bullish breakout look bleak as prospects of an early rollout of coronavirus vaccines are currently offsetting fears of economic restrictions to control the second wave of the virus, as evidenced by the uptick in the U.S. stock futures. As such, the metal is unlikely to draw strong haven demand.

On the downside, the Asian session low of $1,868 is the level to beat for the bears. A violation there would shift the focus back to the key support at $1,850.

Hourly chart

Trend: Bearish

Technical levels

XAU/USD

Overview
Today last price	1873.12
Today Daily Change	0.17
Today Daily Change %	0.01
Today daily open	1872.95

Trends
Daily SMA20	1889.36
Daily SMA50	1899.87
Daily SMA100	1909.75
Daily SMA200	1793.96

Levels
Previous Daily High	1879.85
Previous Daily Low	1860.94
Previous Weekly High	1899.14
Previous Weekly Low	1852.8
Previous Monthly High	1933.3
Previous Monthly Low	1860
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1872.63
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1868.16
Daily Pivot Point S1	1862.64
Daily Pivot Point S2	1852.34
Daily Pivot Point S3	1843.73
Daily Pivot Point R1	1881.55
Daily Pivot Point R2	1890.16
Daily Pivot Point R3	1900.46

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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