Silver Price Forecast: XAG/USD trades back and forth below $23.00, Fed Powell’s speech eyed

Silver price (XAG/USD) consolidates in a narrow range below the crucial resistance of $23.00 in the early New York session. The white metal struggles for a direction as investors await the speech from Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell.

It would be worth watching whether Fed Powell will join his teammates who are supporting keeping interest rates unchanged in the 5.25-5.50% range due to higher US bond yields or will discuss the appropriateness of some further policy-tightening.

The S&P500 opens on a cautiously positive note as investors start digesting the risks of deepening Middle East tensions. The US Dollar Index (DXY) corrects to near 106.00 ahead of Fed Powell’s dialogue on interest rates. While 10-year US Treasury yields rose to 4.94%, indicating investors expect hawkish interest rate guidance from Jerome Powell.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Labor reported a decline in weekly jobless claims for the week ending October 13. The US Department of Labor reported that individuals claimed jobless benefits for the first time in the week ending October 13 were at 198K, lower than expectations of 212K and the former release of 211K.

Silver technical analysis

Silver price struggles to sustain above the 50% Fibonacci retracement (plotted from August 30 high at $25.00 to October 03 low at $20.68) at $22.85 on a two-hour scale. The short-term bias for the white metal is bullish as it is comfortably trading above the 50-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA), which trades at $22.74.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) (14) drops into the 40.00-60.00 range, indicating a rangebound move ahead.

Silver two-hour chart