Gold slips below $1500 mark amid improving risk sentiment

Positive equity markets seemed to dent the commodity’s safe-haven status.
A modest pickup in the USD demand exerts some additional downward pressure.
The downside is likely to remain limited ahead of the latest FOMC meeting minutes.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

Gold edged lower through the early European session on Wednesday and is currently placed at the lower end of its weekly trading range, just below the key $1500 psychological mark.

A combination of negative forces failed to assist the commodity to build on the previous session's modest uptick and exerted some fresh downward pressure on Wednesday - also marking the third day of a downtick in the previous four.

Improving risk sentiment prompts fresh selling

The prevalent risk-on mood - as depicted by a positive trading sentiment around equity markets and reaffirmed by a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields - was seen weighing on the precious metal's safe-haven status.

Meanwhile, stronger US bond yields underpinned demand for the US Dollar and further collaborated towards driving flows away from the dollar-denominated commodity, though the downside seemed limited - at least for the time being.

Possibilities for the resolutions of the prolonged US-China trade dispute dampened further after the US President Donald Trump said that he is still not ready to make a trade deal with China, which might continue to lend some support.

Moreover, investors might also be reluctant to place any aggressive bets ahead of Wednesday's important release of the latest FOMC meeting minutes, which might provide a fresh directional impetus for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for a strong follow-through selling before confirming that the commodity might have actually topped out in the near-term and positioning for any further corrective slide back towards the $1475 support area.

Technical levels to watch

XAU/USD

Overview
Today last price	1498.56
Today Daily Change	-8.84
Today Daily Change %	-0.59
Today daily open	1507.4

Trends
Daily SMA20	1471.09
Daily SMA50	1427.53
Daily SMA100	1359.38
Daily SMA200	1320.2

Levels
Previous Daily High	1508.4
Previous Daily Low	1493.36
Previous Weekly High	1534.4
Previous Weekly Low	1481
Previous Monthly High	1452.72
Previous Monthly Low	1382.02
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1502.66
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1499.11
Daily Pivot Point S1	1497.71
Daily Pivot Point S2	1488.02
Daily Pivot Point S3	1482.68
Daily Pivot Point R1	1512.75
Daily Pivot Point R2	1518.09
Daily Pivot Point R3	1527.78

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

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

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