- By the end of last week's trading, XAU/USD gold price bounced off the key support level at around $2,000, to trade around $2,016 after the latest round of data.
- It seems that the yellow metal price is about to complete an upward breach from the descending channel formation.
- The bullish trend gains for XAU/USD gold price reached the resistance level at $2063 an ounce.
- Before the move, I noted the possibility of gold price exposure to strong profit-taking operations at any time.
The occurrence of profit-taking sales pushed the XAU/USD gold price towards the $1999 support level. The yellow metal's trend is still bullish. Its gains were primarily amid investors abandoning the US dollar following the US Federal Reserve's recent decisions, which reduced the pace of raising US interest rates amid the collapse of a number of US banks affected by the bank's tightening policy to contain record inflation in the country.
Economic Outlook
The XAU/USD gold price is trading affected by the results of recent economic data. US jobs data for April beat the expected figure of 179k by a count of 253k. The country's unemployment rate for the month also fell from 3.5% in March to 3.4%, beating the expected rate of 3.5%, while average hourly earnings grew by 4.4% year on year, ahead of the expected growth rate of 3.5%. 4.2%. On the other hand, the labor force participation rate for the month of April remained unchanged from March at 62.6%, exceeding the expected rate of 62.5%.
Prior to that, last week's initial US jobless claims exceeded the expected number of claims at 240,000 with a count slightly higher than 242 km, while the previous week's continuing claims exceeded the expected number at 1.863 million with a tally of 1.805 million. ADP Employment Change for the month of April exceeded the expected jobs number of 148k with a count of 296k. Elsewhere, the ISM Manufacturing and ISM Services PMI beat expectations, while the S&P Global Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMIs fell short of estimates.
Technical analysis of gold prices:
In the near term and according to the performance of the hourly chart, it appears that XAU/USD gold price has recently completed an upward breach from the descending channel formation. This indicates a significant change in market sentiment from bearish to bullish. Therefore, the bulls will be looking to extend the current rebound towards $2026 or higher to $2038 an ounce. On the other hand, the bears - the bears - will target profits at around $2007 or lower at $1992 an ounce.
On the long term, and according to the performance on the daily chart, it appears that the XAU/USD gold price is trading within a bullish channel formation. This indicates a significant long-term bullish bias in market sentiment. Therefore, the bulls will be looking to ride the current rally towards $2064 or higher to $2118 an ounce. On the other hand, bears will target long-term profits at around $1969 or lower to $1917 an ounce.
The gold market will be affected this week by the release of US inflation figures and the Bank of England's policy decisions.
