Gold remains on the front-foot around $1416, in search of fresh clues

With the few fresh catalysts dominating market sentiment, Gold trades near $1416 during the early Asian session on Tuesday.

The yellow metal witnessed a pullback during the previous day as lack of major news/data joined upbeat outcome of the US NY Empire State Manufacturing Index.

The US and China remain at loggerheads despite on their way to discussing the much-awaited trade deal. Having witnessed China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declining to the multi-year low, the US President Donald Trump boasted the US dominance over the trade talks which the Chinese media criticized afterward.

Elsewhere, Iran continues exerting pressure on the US to remove harsh sanctions before expecting any discussions while the UK disliked Iranian militants’ efforts to seize their oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.

Furthermore, global policymakers continue holding their bearish bias with the US Federal Reserve being in the spotlight.

In addition to trade/political headlines, today’s US Retail Sales and the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech will be the key for the precious metal traders. Fed’s Powell is scheduled to speak at the French G7 Presidency 2019 on “Aspects of Monetary Policy in the Post-Crisis Era”.

Technical Analysis

FXStreet Analyst Haresh Menghani spots sustained trading beyond 100-hour simple moving average (SMA) to portray the momentum strength inside a short-term triangle:

A convincing break through the triangle resistance, currently near the $1422 region, will set the stage for a move beyond the $1438-40 area - the recent multi-year tops, and lift the precious metal further towards testing its next major hurdle near the $1480 zone ahead of the key $1500 psychological mark. On the flip side, any meaningful slide below 100-hour SMA support - currently near the $1407 region, might drag the commodity back below the $1400 handle but is more likely to attract some decent buying interest near the triangle support - around the $1390-89 area.