Happy Friday, traders.

The precious metal GOLD prices closed at 1721.00 after placing a high of 1738.00 and a low of 1716.85. In the first half of the day, gold prices gained and hit one-week highest level amid the soft inflation data in the United States that pressured Treasury yields and the US Dollar Index.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill into law and said that he would direct US states to make all adults eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by May 1. He also urged Americans to stay vigilant against the virus.

Biden warned Americans that further pain and death were still to come from the virus that has already cost 530,000 lives in the United States – the most death count of any country. The restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus effect have also cost millions of jobs in the United States alone. Biden also said that about 10% of the American population has been fully vaccinated and that the US will have enough vaccine supply to inoculate the whole population by the end of May. He ordered states, territories, and tribes to make all adults eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by May 1.

The hopes and optimism for the quick recovery in the US economy increased after Biden’s comments that all Americans would have received vaccine doses by the end of May. It means almost after two and half months, and the United States could resume its pre-pandemic lifestyle. These hopes raised the market’s risk flows and, hence, yellow metal being a safe-haven asset, suffered more and dropped on Thursday.

Gold is considered a hedge against inflation from widespread stimulus aid; however, higher bond yields have threatened this status as they translate into a higher opportunity cost of holding bullion. After the US President signed the US stimulus bill, the US dollar started to decline, and gold prices started to benefit from it and rose to their one-week highest level. However, the yellow metal gains could not live for the third session after the release of better-than-expected US macroeconomic data.

On the data front, at 12:00 GMT, the Federal Budget balance showed a deficit of -310.9B against the expected -298.6B and supported the US dollar and added losses in the precious metal’s prices. At 18:30 GMT, the Unemployment Claims from the last week declined to 712K against the expected 730K and supported the US dollar, and added further downside momentum in gold. At 20:00 GMT, the JOLTS Job Openings raised 6.92M against the expected 6.65M and supported the US dollar, and added to further losses.

Support Resistance
1712.56 1733.71
1704.13 1746.43
1691.41 1754.86
Pivot Point: 1725.28

GOLD continues trading with a bearish bias at 1,712, exhibiting a bearish retracement below the resistance level of 1,722. On the higher side, a bullish crossover of 1,732 level can extend further buying trend until 1,748 level. The precious metal has recently crossed below the 50 periods EMA suggesting bearish bias. Today, selling can be seen below 1,712 until 1,700 and 1,690 level. The MACD and RSI support a selling trend today; therefore, the precious metal may head further lower 1,700. Good luck!