The price of gold (XAU/USD) on Friday bounced off the current weekly lows of about $1,810 to trade at around $1,830 before pulling back late on to $1,824. The price of the yellow metal is now pinned between 38.20% and 50% fib levels in the 60-min chart.
It continues to trade within a highly volatile descending channel formation just below the 100-hour and 200-hour SMA lines. The latest rebound prevented the gold price from crossing to oversold levels of the 14-hour RSI.
Gold Price Fundamentals Overview
From a fundamental perspective, the price of gold is trading at the back of a relatively busy period in the US market. On Friday, the preliminary Michigan consumer sentiment index for February missed the expectation of 80.8 with 76.2. On Thursday, the US initial jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 05 also came short of 757k with 779k claims while continuing claims missed 4.49M with 4.545M. Earlier in the week, the US consumer price index ex-food and energy for January missed the (MoM) estimate of 0.2% with a change of 0.0%. The year-over-year change of 1.4% was waldo lower than the expected growth of 1.5%.
The general consumer price index for the period came short of the expected year-over-year growth of 1.5% with a growth of 1.4%. The (MoM) growth of 0.3% was in line with expectations. The JOLTS job openings for December outperformed the expectation of 6.5 million with 6.646 million. The NFIB business optimism index for January came short of 98.7 with 95.
Gold Price Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)
Technically, the price of gold (XAU/USD) appears to be trading within a gently descending channel formation in the 60-min chart. This indicates a slight short-term bearish bias in a highly volatile market.
The bulls will be targeting short-term profits at around the 23.60% fib level at $1,838 or higher at $1,847. On the other hand, the bears will target pullback profits at around 61.80% and 76.40% fib levels at $1,812 and $1,802, respectively.
Gold Price Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)
In the daily chart, the price of the yellow metal appears to be trading within a descending channel formation. It is now pinned below the 38.20% fib level. This indicates a significant long-term bearish bias in the market sentiment.
The bears will look to extend the current bearish run towards 50% and 61.80% fib levels at $1,767 and $1,696, respectively. On the other hand, the bulls will target rebound at $1,869 or higher at the 23.60% fib level at $1,927.