The yellow metal failed to pass the resistance of the 1,863.00 level. As soon as the price was approached by the 100-hour simple moving average, a decline of the price began, which passed the support of the 55-hour SMA and broke this week's channel up pattern.
By the middle of Thursday's trading hours, the rate had found support in the 1,830.00 level and retraced back up to the 1,840.00 level before starting to trade sideways.
On Thursday, at 13:30 GMT, expect the weekly US Unemployment Claims.
The week will end with the publication of the US Retail Sales and US Core Retail Sales at 13:30 GMT. In November and December, these data sets caused an increase of volatility above the average.
Click on the link below to find out more about the data releases of this and other currency exchange rates.
XAU/USD short-term forecast
Given that yellow metal is pressured by the 55– and 100-hour moving averages near 1,853.00, it is likely that some downside potential could prevail in the market. The rate could decline below the 1,820.00 mark.
In the meantime, it is unlikely that bulls could prevail in the market in the short term, and the price for gold could exceed the 1,893.00 mark due to the resistance provided by the 200-hour SMA.
Hourly Chart
On the daily candle chart, the metal's decline passed the support of the 55-day SMA and pierced the 200-day simple moving average. Moreover, the 38.20% Fibonacci retracement level at 1,837.43 was passed on Friday and Monday. Due to that reason it is not expected that these levels would hold.
The metal has no additional technical support on the daily candle chart, as low as the 50.00% Fibo at 1,763.74. This level provided the price with support at the end of November, when the December surge started.
Daily Candle Chart
Traders remain long
Since Wednesday, the sentiment on the Swiss Foreign Exchange was 55% bullish, as 55% of open position volume was long.
Meanwhile, in the 1000-pip range around the metal's price the pending orders were 60% to buy the metal.
Previously, the orders were 79% to buy.