The White House said that President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan must be passed urgently. However, the market remained unsure about just how quickly this would happen, which resulted in little relief for the GOLD prices on Monday.

To get the bill passed, and in order to reach a compromise, the administration might propose a few mid-sized relief bills rather than a chunky trillion-dollar one. That could provide a slower climb for gold prices than a runaway rally towards $ 2,000 an ounce, and the return to record highs that many have anticipated for months. Furthermore, the uptick in the yellow metal on Monday could also be attributed to the rebound in bitcoin prices. The cryptocurrency reached record highs above $ 40,000 earlier this month, and this has drawn institutional buyers.

Meanwhile, the GOLD prices will also be affected by the Federal Reserve’s monthly rate decision this week, followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference. Rates are expected to remain at a near-zero level, where they have stood for almost a year, due to the pandemic. However, Powell’s words will be examined for even the slightest indication of when a recovery is expected to set in, and when the stimulus measures are likely to start tapering.

Over the past fortnight, Powell has insisted that no tapering is going to happen anytime soon, but bond traders have completely ignored him and continued pushing yields higher, in the hopes of proving the Fed chief wrong, and the GOLD bears have also been complicit in the act, hammering the prices of the yellow metal. GOLD futures remained 2.4% down for January, despite last week’s 1.4% rebound, as the combined losses in the first two weeks of January were heavy.

On Tuesday, the precious metal, GOLD, is trading sideways, holding below a 1,858 resistance level. Above this level, GOLD is likely to find resistance around 1,870, if there is a bullish breakout at 1,859. On the flip side, a bearish breakout at the 1,850 level could trigger a selling trend until 1,841. The RSI and MACD support a selling bias, along with the 50 period EMA. Selling could be seen below the 1,859 level, especially if we see a breakout at the 1,853 support level today.