Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD off two-month highs near $1,748 as yields pause correction
- Gold rises for the second day in a row, heads for the highest close in two months.
- Dollar mixed across the board as equity prices rebound.
Update: Gold price is trading almost unchanged on the day around 1,843, as it fades its uptick from fresh two-month highs of $1,848. The latest leg down in gold price could be associated with a tepid bounce seen in the US Treasury yields, which helps put a fresh bid under the dollar. Additionally, a broad rebound across markets fuel risk-on flows, dulling gold’s appeal as a safe-haven.
Despite the pullback, the bright metal remains supported by soaring inflation globally and negative real returns. Meanwhile, escalating geopolitical tensions surround US, Russia and Ukraine amid a probable invasion by the Kremlin of the latter. Recently, the Fed sentiment-driven yields’ price action and inflation concerns remain the underlying theme, which will continue to remain pivotal going forward.
Read: Gold Price Forecast: Bulls looking for a re-test of November high at 1,877.15
Gold broke to the upside following US economic data, and it peaked during the American session at $1847, the highest level in almost two months. It holds a bullish tone but shows difficulties holding above $1845.
Metals are up for the second day in a row. XAG/USD is up 1.78% at $24.58, the highest level since November 22. Gold and silver have broken relevant short-term technical levels boosting further the upside.
Another factor helping metals is the pullback in US yields from the recent peak together with Thursday’s rebound in Wall Street. The Dow Jones gains 0.83% and the Nasdaq 1.47%.
Economic data in the US came in mixed. Initial Jobless Claims jumped to 286K, the highest level in three months and significantly above expectations. On the positive, the Philly Fed Index rose from 15.4 to 23.2 in December. The last report, Existing Home Sales came in at 6.18 million (annual rate) below the 6.44 of market consensus.
Levels to watch
The technical bias continues to point to the upside, after breaking on Wednesday the $1830 area. Now XAU/USD is facing resistance in the band $1845/50. Above resistance levels are seen at $1855 followed by $1864.
A pullback under $1830 should remove the positive bias and favor further losses, targeting $1820 initially and then $1810.
Technical levels
Author
Matías Salord
FXStreet
Matías started in financial markets in 2008, after graduating in Economics. He was trained in chart analysis and then became an educator. He also studied Journalism. He started writing analyses for specialized websites before joining FXStreet.
