GOLD prices opened at $1461.440 and have placed a high of $1469.2 and a low of $1459.98 since then. Overall the trend for gold has remained bullish until now, and the prices are moving at $1463.88 currently.

At 16:00 GMT, the Small Business Index from the US National Federation of Independent Business (NIFB) was released, which showed that it has increased in the month of November to 104.7 from the expected 103.1 and this supported the greenback.

At 18:30 GMT, the Revised Non-Farm Productivity for the third quarter was released and came in as -0.2% against the expectations of -0.1%. The Revised Unit Labour Costs for the third quarter from the United States dropped to 2.5% from the expectations of 3.4%.

On the news front, the trade developments remained under the attention of traders ahead of the looming tariff deadline. Sonny Perdue, the US Agricultural Secretary, said that President of the United States Donald Trump did not want to implement the next round of scheduled tariffs against Chinese goods on December 15, but he wanted “movement” from China to avoid them.

Trump wanted China to purchase $50 billion worth of US farm products annually while Chinese representatives have said that they were willing to buy more US farm goods, but the $50 billion figure was a soft goal. Even before trade tensions in 2018, the Chinese imports from US farms totaled $20 billion.

According to the analysis of Chinese & US data, China has bought more US soybeans between September and November this year, a good gesture to try to reach an initial agreement on trade. The Chinese imports of US soybeans increased 13 times from the previous year’s same period.

However, Chinese officials are hopeful that the US will delay a threatened tariff increase due on Sunday as both countries are focused on the de-escalation of trade tensions. Traders are keeping an eye on specific moves from China or the US in the development of trade deal to react accordingly.

On Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that getting the right deal was more important than whether it comes before or after December 15. He added that the US was in a better negotiating position every day that goes by, and most of the tougher issues will be addressed in later phases of talks.

Investors are also waiting for the forecast of US economic growth from policymakers who are attending a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve, which will end on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve is expected to hold its interest rates unchanged in this meeting. Lower interest rate means weakened US dollar and higher yellow metal prices.

On Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index from the United States will be released, which is expected to drop to 0.2% from the previous month’s 0.4%.

Gold – XAU/USD – Technical Outlook

Gold’s technical side hasn’t changed much so far as it continues to trade in line with our forecast. Gold is trading at 1,460 level, having formed an inverted hammer pattern, which is followed by a strong bearish trend.

Usually, patterns like this drive bullish reversals in the market. But at the same time, if we notice Friday’s closing candle, it’s exhibiting robust bearish bias.

Gold – XAU/USD – Technical Levels
Support Resistance
1459.88 1469.07
1455.37 1473.74
1446.19 1482.92
Key Trading Level: 1464.56

If gold continues to trade bullish above 1,458 support, the odds of 23.6% Fibo retracement and 38.2% retracement at 1,463 and 1,466 remains pretty high. Alternatively, the violation of the 1,457 level can extend sell-off until 1,453 support level.

Good luck!