The decline of the bullion was stopped on Thursday by the combined support of the 200-hour SMA and a pivot point at 1,521.60.
Economic Calendar Analysis
This week's data releases have ended. See the reports in the Fundamental Analysis section.
In regards to the next week, there are a couple of US data releases on the economic calendars that are shown as high impact.
On Tuesday, at 14:00 GMT the US ISM Manufacturing PMI might impact gold prices.
On Thursday, the US ADP Non-Farm Employment Change will be published at 12:15 GMT.
On Friday, US employment data will be published. The event will have three numbers being revealed – the Average Hourly Earnings, Non-Farm Employment Change and Unemployment Rate.
XAU/USD short-term forecast
During the previous trading session, the XAU/USD exchange rate declined to the support level – the monthly R3 at 1,521.59. During today's morning, the rate was testing the given support.
Note that yellow metal is also supported by the 200-hour moving average, currently located at the 1,519.58 mark. Thus, it is unlikely that some downside potential could prevail in the market.
The exchange rate could reverse north from the given support in the nearest future. However, note that it has to surpass the resistance formed by the 55– and 100-hour SMAs circa 1,535.00. If it holds, the price for gold could consolidate in the short run.
Hourly Chart
On the daily candle chart, the recent surge did not pierce the upper trend line of the ascending channel pattern.
Daily Chart
Swiss traders short gold
On Friday, 65% of trader open position volume on the Swiss Foreign Exchange was in short positions.
Meanwhile, in the 1000 base point range around the current metal's price the pending orders were bearish – 70% of orders were to sell and 30% to buy.