Bullion Starts The Week On The Defensive

A firmer USD has weighed on bullion during Asia-Pac dealing, with spot gold last down the best part of $10/oz, just below $1,890/oz. Gold continues to hold within the confines of the recently observed range, with our technical analyst noting that the precious metal remains vulnerable despite the recovery from Thursday’s low. That same Thursday low ($1,872.2/oz) provides the initial point of technical support, with any sustained breach there set to expose the 76.4% retracement of the Jan 28-Mar 8 rally ($1,848.8/oz). Bulls need to retake firm resistance in the form of the 20-day EMA to start turning the technical tide back in their favour.

• Known ETF holdings of gold seem to have found a bit of a short-term plateau after rising by 10% from the late December trough. Note that the metric currently operates ~4% below the record peak observed in ’20.
• Participants will be attuned to all things U.S. in the coming week, with the ISM manufacturing report (Monday), FOMC meeting (Wednesday) & NFP release (Friday) providing the major macro reference points over the coming days.