In regards to the near term future, a bounce off from a support level was expected.
Economic Calendar Analysis
This week, there are a couple of US macroeconomic data releases, which might impact gold through the strength of the US Dollar.
On Tuesday, the US ISM Manufacturing PMI is set to be released at 14:00 GMT.
On Wednesday, the ADP Non-Farm Employment Change is set to be published at 12:15 GMT.
On Thursday, at 14:00 GMT the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI is scheduled to be published.
The week will end with the biggest event of the month in the US, the employment data publication, on Friday at 12:30 GMT. The release will consist of three data sets being published. The Unemployment Rate, Non-Farm Employment Change and the Average Hourly Earnings.
The Average Hourly Earnings is the top number to watch. It is closely followed in importance by the Non-Farm Employment change. Meanwhile, the Unemployment Rate can be ignored by financial traders.
XAU/USD short-term forecast
On Friday, the price for gold traded sideways around the psychological level at 1,500.00. During today's morning, the XAU/USD exchange rate was testing the lower boundary of the descending triangle pattern at 1,485.00.
From a theoretical perspective, it is likely that a reversal north should occur in the nearest future. In this case it is unlikely that the commodity price could rise higher than the 1,500.97/1,510.67 area due to the resistance of the 55-, 100– and 200-hour SMAs.
On the other hand, yellow metal could consolidate against the US Dollar within the following trading session due to the resistance level formed by the monthly PP at 1,492.35. If the given pattern does not hold, the rate could target the 1,480.00 level.
Hourly Chart
On the daily candle chart, the price for gold pieced the support of the 55-day simple moving average. However, it can still force the metal into retracing back up.
Due to that reason on Monday, the daily candle chart also had to be watched closely.
Daily Chart
Slight Short Sentiment Remains
On Monday, 53% of open gold 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 bullish– 59% of orders were to buy and 41% to sell.
Previously, the orders were 78% to buy.