Steady In Asia

Gold is virtually unchanged from settlement at typing, printing $1,899.6/oz in very limited Asia-Pac dealing.

• To recap, gold closed lower on Tuesday as the initial round of sanctions from the U.S., UK, and the EU on Russia were deemed to be less harsh than some had feared. The precious metal remains below Tuesday’s cycle highs ($1,914.25/oz), with some beginning to question Russia’s willingness to move troops beyond the separatist states of Luhansk & Donetsk (and further into Ukraine). Still, the elevated threat of deeper Russian incursions continues to provide background support for gold, while providing a sense of continuous headline risk.
• The cancellation of Thursday’s Blinken-Lavrov meeting, and subsequent White House comments noting that a potential meeting between Biden & Putin “certainly is not in the plans” provided little in the way of market reaction.
• On the technical front, gold remains in an uptrend, with resistance located at $1,916.6 (Jun 1 ’21 high and key bull trigger). A break above this level would expose the top of the bull channel drawn from the Aug 9 ’21 low.