Palladium Price News: XPD/USD bulls flirt with $2,000, focus on Evergrande, Fed Powell

Palladium (XPD/USD) grinds higher around $1,990, up 0.50% on a day heading into Friday’s European session. In doing so, the quote consolidates the weekly losses around the lowest levels since June 2020.

Although the precious metal follows gold prices for the latest rebound, buyers await the key catalysts for fresh impulse. Among them is Evergrande’s bond coupon payment, as well as speeches from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) officials including Chairman Jerome Powell.

Also favoring the metal’s safe-haven demand are the inflation concerns raised by the European Central Bank (ECB) Governor Christine Lagarde and Thursday’s hawkish appearance of the Bank of England (BOE).

The quote dropped from the weekly high the previous day amid a broad bullion selling as the US Treasury yields jumped the most since February, to refresh the 11-week top. Behind the moves were the market’s rethink over the Fed’s rate hike and tapering signals, coupled with Chinese help to Evergrande and progress over the US $3.5 trillion stimulus talks.

Against this backdrop, Asia-Pacific stocks trade mixed and the US Dollar Index (DXY) consolidate the previous day’s losses whereas the US 10-year Treasury yields refresh 11-week top to 1.451%, following the heaviest daily jump since February. Furthermore, S&P 500 Futures print 0.05% intraday loss by the press time.

Moving on, Evergrande news will join the Fedspeak to direct short-term XPD/USD moves while the weekend elections in Germany act as extra catalysts to watch for fresh direction.

Technical analysis

10-DMA defends corrective pullback from a 15-month low, near $1,974, directing palladium prices toward the mid-September top near $2,080. However, any further advances hinge on the commodity’s ability to cross the $2,185-200 region comprising multiple lows marked since September 2020.