- 60% of all SWFX open positions are long
- Trader pending commands are set up to buy the metal, namely 61% of total orders
- Gold opened Friday's session at 1,170.00
- Economic events to watch over the next 24 hours: US Average Hourly Earnings, US Non-Farm Employment Change, US Unemployment rate, FOMC Member Brainard Speaks
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since the summer, but the trend remained still consistent with a healthy signs of the US job market. According to the report, initial jobless claims rose to 268,000, showing an increase of 17,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 251,000. Meanwhile, economists had expected jobless claims to reach 253,000 level. The following increase was much bigger than expected, thus jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 270,000 in the week ended June 25th. Claims have been below 300,000 since early 2015, showing the longest such streak since 1970. Employers' reluctance to part with workers is one sign of a tight labor market. In the meantime, US manufacturing was stronger than expected in November, since the strong greenback remains a headache for producers in the sector. According to the Institute of Supply Management and Markit Economics, the ISM PMI went up to 53.2 in November (52.5 expected.) Regional data received over the past month suggested improvement in the sector and had pointed to a strong national reading.
New orders for US manufactured durable goods rose markedly last month, driven by higher demand for machinery and other equipment, official figures revealed on Wednesday. Overall, new orders for capital goods jumped 4.8% in October, according to the US Department of Commerce. Meanwhile, market analysts anticipated a slight acceleration to 1.2%. The September figure was revised down from -0.1% to -0.3%. Demand for transportation equipment jumped 12% during the reported month, the largest gain since October 2015. Back in September, new orders for transportation equipment climbed 0.4%. Excluding orders tied to transportation, core durable goods orders increased 1.0%, following September's downwardly revised gain of 0.1% and surpassing the 0.2% rise market forecast. The US economy is set to expand at a 3.6% annual pace in the Q3, after growing 2.9% in the previous quarter. Separately, the Department of Labor reported on Wednesday the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased to 251,000 in the week ending November 18, up from the prior week's 233,000, whereas analysts expected a milder rise to 241,000.
Upcoming fundamentals: US Employment data continues
On Friday the financial markets will be affected by releases, which set the strength of the US Dollar. All of them will be released at 13:30 GMT, and the data will be combined in a package. The package will consist of the US Average Hourly Earnings, US Non-Farm Payrolls and the US Unemployment rate. Moreover, traders might want to listen to the speech of the FOMC Member Brainard at 13:45 GMT.
Gold attempts a rebound on Friday
Daily chart: The yellow metal's price had slightly surged on Friday morning, as the bullion had touched the 1,177.62 mark. However, the metal reached the upper trend line of a short term descending channel pattern, and began to retreat. Meanwhile, daily aggregate technical indicators forecast no changes in the pair. By combining the two factors it seems clear that the rate will fall below to the weekly S1 at 1,162.76 and rebound against it to surge back to a level very close to the opening price of 1.170. In addition, this would then be the third time the weekly S1 would stop the fall of the commodity price.Daily chart
Hourly chart: The past 24 hours on the hourly chart for the yellow metal look exactly like forecasted before. The bullion met resistance in the form of the 20-hour SMA, fell below the 1,163 mark. Afterwards the metal began a gradual surge to the 55-hour SMA. However, there is one unexpected thing. The most recent metal's pause has revealed another point of reference for the descending channel pattern and provided a chance to improve its quality.
Hourly chart
SWFX traders firmly bullish
OANDA traders have slightly decreased their bullish outlook on gold, as 75.49% of open positions were long on Friday, compared to 77.40% on Thursday. Meanwhile, traders of SAXO bank have increased their bullish sentiment, as on Friday 66.64% of traders bet the metal will surge, compared to 64.68% during the previous session.