Since Wednesday afternoon, the yellow metal's price has been kept down by the resistance of the 100-hour simple moving average. The SMA has been slowly moving up from the 1,923.00 to 1,930.00 levels.
Meanwhile, it was spotted that the support zone above the 1,900.00 price level was providing support and keeping the price up.
On Wednesday, the FOMC Meeting Minutes are set to be released at 19:00 GMT.
On Thursday, at 13:30 GMT, the US Unemployment Claims could cause a minor move on USD pairs and assets. In addition, on the same day, at 15:00 GMT the US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI results will be published.
The week will end with the release of three US employment data sets. The releases will occur on Friday at 13:30 GMT.
Click on the link below to find out more about the data releases.
XAU/USD short-term forecast
From the one hand, it is likely that yellow metal could gain support from the 200-hour moving average near 1,904.00 and extend gains against the US Dollar in the short term.
From the other hand, it is possible that the exchange rate could be pushed down by the 55– and 100-hour SMAs in the 1,927.00/1,935.00 range.
Hourly Chart
On the daily candle chart, note that the channel up pattern, which has guided the metal since the start of December.
The rate has declined to the supporting trend line of this pattern. In addition, the support of the 100-day simple moving average is located close by. Due to these factors combined the daily chart signals that the metal could once again test the November and January high level.
Daily Candle Chart
Traders remove buy orders
On Thrusday, the sentiment on the Swiss Foreign Exchange was 54% bullish, as 54% of open position volume was long.
On Wednesday, 53% of open position volume was long.
Meanwhile, in the 1000-pip range around the metal's price the pending orders were 54% to buy the metal.
Previously, the orders were 75% to buy. It appears that the orders were cancelled.