Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD trades with modest losses, focus remains on US elections

Gold witnessed a modest pullback on Tuesday amid the prevalent upbeat market mood.
The US political uncertainty kept the USD bulls on the defensive and helped limit losses.
Investors now prefer to wait on the sidelines ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

Gold edged lower through the Asian session, albeit lacked any strong follow-through and remained well within the striking distance of multi-day tops set earlier this Tuesday.

The precious metal stalled its recent recovery move from one-month lows ahead of the $1900 mark and witnessed a modest pullback during the first half of the trading action on Tuesday. The prevalent upbeat market mood – as depicted by another day of strong gains in the US equity futures – was seen as a key factor weighing on traditional safe-haven assets, including gold.

The negative factor, to a larger extent, was offset by a weaker tone surrounding the US dollar. Growing wariness about the actual outcome of Tuesday's US presidential election kept the USD bulls on the defensive. This, in turn, extended some support to dollar-denominated commodities and helped limit any meaningful losses for the XAU/USD, at least for the time being.

It is worth reporting that the incoming opinion polls have been indicating a strong lead for Democrat challenger Joe Biden over incumbent President Donald Trump. However, the gap is narrow in key battleground states, forcing investors to remain on the sidelines rather than betting on a particular result of the US election.

Apart from this, concerns about the economic fallout from fresh lockdown measures to curb the second wave of coronavirus infections further collaborated towards limiting the downside for the yellow metal. This makes it prudent to wait for some strong follow-through selling before traders again start positioning for the resumption of the recent downward trajectory.

There isn't any major market-moving economic data due for release from the US on Tuesday. Hence, the key focus will be on the US elections. This, along with developments surrounding the coronavirus saga and the broader market risk sentiment, will play a key role in influencing the XAU/USD and assist traders to grab some short-term opportunities.

Technical levels to watch

XAU/USD

Overview
Today last price	1889.08
Today Daily Change	-6.40
Today Daily Change %	-0.34
Today daily open	1895.48

Trends
Daily SMA20	1899.2
Daily SMA50	1914.99
Daily SMA100	1891.33
Daily SMA200	1771.69

Levels
Previous Daily High	1895.79
Previous Daily Low	1873.52
Previous Weekly High	1911.46
Previous Weekly Low	1860
Previous Monthly High	1933.3
Previous Monthly Low	1860
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1887.28
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1882.03
Daily Pivot Point S1	1880.74
Daily Pivot Point S2	1865.99
Daily Pivot Point S3	1858.47
Daily Pivot Point R1	1903.01
Daily Pivot Point R2	1910.53
Daily Pivot Point R3	1925.28

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

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

AUD/USD consolidates above 0.7200; US NFP awaited

AUD/USD holds steady above 0.7200, near its highest level since mid-May, as bulls await the US NFP report for more cues on the Fed's policy path before placing fresh bets. Meanwhile, the recent decline in US bond yields keeps the US Dollar depressed near its lowest level in over a week and acts as a tailwind for the Aussie amid the RBA's hawkish tilt.

USD/JPY eyes August swing low, near 155.20 ahead of US NFP

USD/JPY retests the August monthly swing low during the Asian session on Friday as a more hawkish repricing of BoJ rate-hike bets and a suspected intervention continue to underpin the Japanese Yen. Meanwhile, the US Dollar is seen consolidating the previous day's heavy losses amid soft US bond yields, further weighing on the currency pair as traders keenly await the US NFP report.

Gold tumbles as blockbuster US NFP lift US Dollar, Treasury yields

Gold (XAU/USD) falls sharply on Friday, snapping a two-day recovery after the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report surprised strongly to the upside. The metal briefly climbed above $4,500 on Thursday, gaining nearly 2%, but has since erased a large part of that advance.

The week ahead: Dollar at a crossroads as CPI and ECB take centre stage

With the summer finally over, investors returned with a strong appetite for action. Following last week’s strong performance, the US dollar has taken a back seat so far this week, as oil, the yen and sovereign bond yields monopolized market interest.

CFTC report: Oil rebound offsets broader positioning retreat

The week in one sentence: Speculative positioning became more defensive in the week ending September 1. Yen short positioning recorded the largest deterioration, while Gold length also retreated. Oil buying returned alongside stronger prices, and Canadian Dollar and Euro positioning improved, although Euro flows diverged from weaker spot prices.

Diesel’s record $100 warning: The oil shock hiding in plain sight

The Oil market may look calmer than it did a few months ago, but diesel is sending a very different message. The US diesel crack spread, the premium of ultra-low sulphur diesel futures over WTI, recently surged above $100 per barrel for the first time, reaching an intraday record of just over $102.00.