- SWFX traders are 51% bullish
- 59% of pending commands are to buy the metal
- The bullion opened at 1,208.14
- Upcoming Events: US Unemployment Claims
Consumers' mood in the United States deteriorated markedly in January, a monthly survey revealed on Tuesday. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 111.8 points in January after hitting 113.7, the highest level in 15 years, in the preceding month, while market analysts anticipated a slighter decrease to 112.6 during the reported period. The survey showed that consumers' assessment of current conditions improved in January. Those stating business conditions are "good" increased to 29.3% from 28.6% in December, whereas those saying conditions were "bad" decreased to 16.1% from 17.8% in the prior month. Nevertheless, consumers' short-term outlook turned significantly more negative in January, falling to 23.1% from the previous month's 24.7%. Furthermore, the share of those expecting business conditions to worsen rose to 10.7% from December's 8.9%.
In addition, the proportion of those expecting more jobs in the upcoming months fell to 19.8% from December's 21.7%, while the percentage of those expecting less jobs remained unchanged at 14.0%. The proportion of those expecting their income to improve declined to 18.0% from 21.5%, whereas the share of those expecting an income drop climbed to 9.6% from 8.6% registered in the previous month.
Upcoming events: US Unemployment Claims
Later in the day a data release in the US is set to affect the financial markets, as the US Unemployment Claims will be published at 13:30 GMT. The data is usually not associated with large fluctuations in the markets. However, the previous week these claims cause notable volatility. Due to that reason today the Dukascopy research team is set to cover the data release live on the banks webinar platform. A notification with an option to join will pop up just before the release on the trading platform.
Gold breaks resistance
Daily chart: During the early hours of Thursday's trading session the yellow metal surged and broke through the first weekly resistance level, which is located at 1,213.16. Due to that the metal has a free path up to the 1,219.20 mark, where the 38.20% Fibonacci retracement level is located at. However, that will be a hard resistance to break, as the Fibo is also supported by the upper Bollinger band at 1,219.89 and the 100-day SMA at 1,221.72. Although, if the resistance cluster would be broken, the bullion might jump above 1,235 level.Daily chart
Hourly chart: The hourly chart shows that not even a 20-hour SMA or a Bollinger band stands in the way of the rate to the 38.20% Fibonacci retracement level, which is located at 1,219.20. In addition, the 20-day SMA is actually providing support to the currency exchange rate, as an attempt of the US Dollar to regain losses was stopped by the SMA. As the SMA moves higher, it will help the bullion in its surge.
Hourly chart
SWFX traders return to being neutral
OANDA Gold traders have a bullish outlook on the yellow metal, as open positions were 68% bullish on Thursday. Meanwhile, traders of SAXO bank also remain long, regarding the yellow metal, as 66.80% of open positions are bullish.