A breather in the gold rally shifts the focus back to the near-term chart

The high earlier this week touched $2,942 and gold is nearly 2% down from that currently. Is it a case of running out of steam or are the bulls just taking a bit of a breather? I reckon the near-term chart will provide some answers to that.

As seen with the rise up from $2,600 this year, gold prices have not firmly broken below either of its key hourly moving averages. At each and every point since the rally last month, buyers have been defending either the 100-hour (red line) or 200-hour (blue line) moving average. That shows sellers have been unable to establish near-term control in terms of the price action battle.

The former is now seen at around $2,883 with the latter at around $2,853. So, those will be key levels to keep an eye out for as we navigate through the US CPI report later and also the potential Trump tariffs announcement (or lack thereof).

The above will be key in gauging the price momentum for gold in the latest rally. In the bigger picture though, it’s been tough to argue with the rise since the turn of the year. Central banks are still stocking up gold while cutting interest rates. And with all that’s going on with politics and geopolitics, it’s hard not to make a case for stronger gold prices.

Even with the drop since yesterday, gold is still up 0.9% this week and potentially aiming for seven straight weeks of gains.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.