- The US dollar's gains stopped, allowing the price of gold to rebound to the upside, reaching the level of $1754 an ounce.
- This came after selling gold, XAU/USD, which reached the support level of $1727 an ounce.
- The decline in the dollar came after the announcement that applications for US unemployment benefits rose last week to their highest level in three months amid a wave of layoffs at technology companies, in a sign of apathy in the narrow labor market.
Labor Department data on Wednesday showed that US initial jobless claims increased by 17,000 to 240,000 in the week ending November 19th. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was 225,000. Continuing claims, which include people who have already received unemployment benefits for a week or more, rose by 48,000 to 1.55 million in the week ending Nov. 12, the highest level since March. This was also the sixth consecutive weekly increase. Economists have been watching the continuing claims closely in recent weeks because they have been warning of signs of recession in the past. Although the gauge is up from the lows in May this year, it is still well below last year's levels and historical averages. The Fed embarked on its most tightening campaign since the 1980s this year in a bid to tame the highest inflation rate in a generation. The sharp rises in US interest rates had an impact on sectors such as housing and construction, but the labor market remained strong overall.
The list of high-profile tech companies announcing job cuts or hiring freezes is growing, from Amazon.com Inc. to Meta Inc. Facebook parent company HP Inc. to make personal computers, which this week said it would cut as many as 6,000 jobs. The increasing layoffs in this sector do not necessarily herald weakness in the US labor market because many technology companies have ramped up hiring during the pandemic-era e-commerce boom. However, other industries are not immune. Even FedEx Corp. She furloughs workers to her freight unit before what is usually the busiest season of the year for the company.
Claims numbers tend to be more volatile around US holidays. The most recent data spanned the week between Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.
Most Fed officials at their latest meeting favored reducing the size of the US interest rate hike "soon" - before raising the benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a basis point for the fourth time in a row. And policy makers at the US central bank saw "very few signs of easing inflation pressures." Still, a "significant majority" of officials felt a short-term rate hike "is likely to be appropriate soon," according to the minutes of their Nov. 1-2 meeting released on Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to raise its key short-term interest rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, by half a point when it next meets in mid-December.
XAU/USD gold price forecast today:
After the recent selling operations, and with the decline of the US dollar, the XAU/USD gold price had an opportunity to rebound upwards. The bulls would not be able to control the direction without moving towards the resistance levels of 1762 and 1775 dollars, respectively. On the other hand, breaking the support at $1726, as happened recently, will support the strength of the bearish correction. The price is now neutral, waiting for factors to either side. I still prefer to sell gold from every level up. In the midst of the US holiday, liquidity in the markets will decrease and the market will move according to investor sentiment.
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