Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD spikes and retreats post-NFP, vulnerable below $1930 level

Gold faded the post-NFP uptick to $1946-47 region and dropped to session lows.
Softer NFP print was offset by a larger-than-expected fall in the unemployment rate.
Surging US bond yields, positive US equity futures added to the intraday selling bias.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

Gold quickly reversed an early North American session uptick to the $1946-47 region and dropped back closer to the lower end of its daily trading range post-US jobs data.

The latest NFP report showed that the US economy added 1.371 million jobs in August as compared to 1.4 million expected. Moreover, July's reading was also revised lower to 1.734 million from 1.763 million. The US dollar weakened a bit in reaction to softer headline reading and provided a modest lift to the dollar-denominated commodity.

The negative reading, to a larger extent, was offset by a larger-than-expected fall in the unemployment rate, coming in at 8.4%. This was well below consensus estimates pointing to a modest downtick to as compared to 9.8% from 10.2%, which, in turn, capped the commodity, rather prompted some selling at higher levels.

Apart from this, a strong rally in the US Treasury bond yields further collaborated towards driving flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal. This, coupled with indications of a strong opening in the US equity markets, might have already set the stage for further intraday weakness.

Even from a technical perspective, the commodity has moved on the verge of breaking through a three-month-old ascending trend-line. The mentioned support is pegged near the $1928-27 region, which coincides with weekly lows and should act as a key pivotal point for short-term traders.

Technical levels to watch

XAU/USD

Overview
Today last price	1940.68
Today Daily Change	9.56
Today Daily Change %	0.50
Today daily open	1931.12

Trends
Daily SMA20	1955.42
Daily SMA50	1900
Daily SMA100	1810.18
Daily SMA200	1688.47

Levels
Previous Daily High	1951.18
Previous Daily Low	1921.97
Previous Weekly High	1976.79
Previous Weekly Low	1902.76
Previous Monthly High	2075.32
Previous Monthly Low	1863.24
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	1933.13
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	1940.02
Daily Pivot Point S1	1918.33
Daily Pivot Point S2	1905.55
Daily Pivot Point S3	1889.12
Daily Pivot Point R1	1947.54
Daily Pivot Point R2	1963.97
Daily Pivot Point R3	1976.75

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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