Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD treads water around $1,930, in search of fresh direction

Gold price is flatlined while trading within the mid of this week’s range around $1,930 so far this Friday. The market sentiment has somewhat improved in European trading, which has triggered a pullback in the US dollar and the Treasury yields. Although the underlying concerns over the aggressive Fed’s tightening and the Western sanctions on Russia are likely to keep the dollar bulls hopeful amid a data-light US docket. The Fed commentary continued to back the case for a 50-bps rate hike in the May meeting, dulling the demand for the non-interest-bearing gold price. The bulls need a decisive close above the 21-Daily Moving Average (DMA) at $1,935 to kick start a fresh uptrend. Attention now turns towards the critical US inflation data due next week. Meanwhile, the sentiment around the dollar and yields will continue to have a significant impact on the bright metal.

Read: Rates spark: Quantitative tightening pressure

Gold (XAU/USD) has tumbled below its principal cushion of $1,930.00 as the market participants are raising bets on settlement of the US dollar index (DXY) above the crucial resistance of 100.00. The precious metal is falling gradually in the Asian session after a mildly positive start on Friday.

The discussions over pushing the interest rate to its mean reversion by the Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers are underpinning the greenback against the yellow metal. A preliminary estimate of the yearly US Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 6.6%, which will release next week, is dictating the story of soaring inflation. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members have narrated the neutral rate at 2.4% at which demand will not dampen and growth will not de-escalate. To shift the current interest rates to the neutral rate, the Fed has already announced one or more interest rate hikes by 50 basis points (bps) out of the six interest rate hikes to be announced this year.

The DXY is trading around 100.00, seeking a trigger that will drive the asset higher. Meanwhile, the 10-year US Treasury yields are trading at 2.66%, at the press time and are looking to extend gains by overstepping a three-year high at 2.67%.

Gold Technical Analysis

On an hourly scale, XAU/USD is oscillating in a descending triangle formation whose horizontal support is placed at $1,915.50 while the descending trendline is plotted from March 31 high at $1,949.89. The 20- and 200-period Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) are overlapping each other, which signals a consolidation ahead.

Gold hourly chart