Good morning, traders.

GOLD prices closed at 1728.36 after placing a high of 1733.57 and a low of 1721.25. After placing two days of gains, they were little changed on Monday amid softer dollar. The hopes for a swift economic recovery followed by a strong US jobs and services sector raised the stock market prices that created a difficult environment for gold.

On Friday, the US Labor Department data showed that the US economy created most jobs in seven months in March. This data pushed the main indexes in Wall Street to their record highs and weighed on the bullion.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the services industry activity measure also rose to a record high and pushed the US dollar index higher. However, the gains in greenback started declining after comments from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. She made a case for a global minimum corporate tax rate on Monday as the Biden administration faced opposition to its plans to raise US businesses’ rates. These calls were made in an effort to restore global leadership and credibility with US allies following the unilateralist approach for the Trump era.

On the data front, at 18:45 GMT, the Final Services PMI remained flat at 60.4 against the forecast of 60.3 and supported the US dollar. At 19:00 GMT, the ISM Services PMI raised to 63.7 in March against the projected 58.3 and supported the US dollar that limited the upward trend in gold prices. The Factory Orders from the US declined to -0.8% against the projected -0.5% and weighed on the US dollar and supported the yellow metal.

On the other hand, the health experts in the US said that coronavirus vaccinations were going extremely well in the US; however, more people need to be protected, and the country might be at the start of another surge. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of vaccinations in a single day went up more than 4 million for the first time over the weekend.

However, CDC also added that only 18.8% of Americans were fully vaccinated, and the cases were increasing at a concerning pace. This softened the hike in the US dollar and supported gold a little on Monday. The mixed sentiment in the market kept the precious metal consolidated and unchanged for the day as the trading volume was also limited due to Easter Holidays.

Daily Technical Levels
Support Resistance
1722.70 1730.50
1718.40 1734.00
1714.90 1738.30
Pivot point: 1726.20

GOLD is trading with a bullish bias at 1,736 level, facing immediate resistance at 1,738 level. The precious metal has violated the downward trendline on the two-hourly timeframes extending resistance at 1,733 level. For now, the closing of candles above 1,733 level is supporting bullish bias. Bullish crossover of 1,738 level can extend buying trend until next target area of 1,746 and 1,751 level. The 20 & 50 periods EMA support buying trends, along with the MACD and RSI, which are supporting bullish bias. Let’s now keep an eye on 1,738 as below this gold can exhibit selling and buying above the same level today. Good luck!