Finally Out Of The Narrow Range

A flat start to Asia-Pac trade for spot gold, last dealing little changed at $1,755/oz.

• A firmer USD and uptick in our weighted U.S. real yield monitor allowed gold to break out of its recent range on Thursday, with firmer U.S. retail sales data proving decisive on the day. Still, bears only managed to force a very shallow and minor breach below the 61.8% retracement of the Aug 9-Sep 3 rally, with Thursday's low ($1,745.3/oz) now providing the initial point of support. A move below there would allow bears to target the 76.4% retracement of the same Aug 9-Sep 3 rally ($1,724.5/oz). Initial resistance has moved to the Sep 14 low ($1,781.8/oz).
• Note that known ETF holdings of gold have operated in a sideways fashion in recent weeks, hovering just above the post-COVID lows witnessed in April, with that particular metric last sitting 10.4% off of the all-time highs seen in October '20.
• Participants await next week's FOMC decision, which will see focus fall on any commentary surrounding the tapering of the central bank's QE programme.