The decline of the metal had extended on Friday. Namely, gold prices had fallen to the levels just above 1,320.00.
The price managed to pass the support levels at 1,330.00 and they plummeted immediately afterwards.
On Friday, the last support before the 1,310.00 level was the 200-hour simple moving average at 1,322.15.
The week will end with the Canadian Core Retail Sales at 13:30 GMT on Friday.
The event is scheduled to be covered by Dukascopy Analytics on our Dukascopy Webinars YouTube channel. The stream starts ten minutes before the data release.
For more information watch the weekly Calendar Analysis stream recording.
XAU/USD short term forecast
During the previous trading session, the yellow metal depreciated against the US Dollar by 1529 pips or 1.14%. On Friday morning, the rate was supported by the 200-hour simple moving average at the 1,322.12 mark.
In regards to the near-term future, most likely, the 200-hour simple moving average will keep supporting the rate during the day. It is expected that the rate will stay at the 1,325.00 level.
However, gold could pass through the 200-hour simple moving average at 1,322.12 to depreciate towards the medium pattern line at the 1,310.00 level.
Hourly Chart
On the daily chart the rate reveals that the monthly R1 of the simple pivot points provided the resistance for the decline.Meanwhile, note that the closest support on the daily chart was the 1,310.00 level. Close by was located a monthly PP and the lower trend line of the ascending pattern.
Daily Chart
Traders ride the downwards move
Traders have been largely shorting the metal throughout this week.
By the middle of Friday's trading 68% of the total open position volume on the Swiss Foreign Exchange was short.
Meanwhile, the trader set up pending orders in a 1000 base point range around the metal's current price reveal additional information.
Namely, trader pending orders were mostly set to buy the commodity, as 70% of orders were set to buy.
The 70% of buy orders might be the take profits and stop losses of the short positions.