- Gold prices trade mixed near the September lows, probed on Monday.
- Risk catalysts remain mostly sluggish as virus woes combat vaccine hopes.
- Expectations of further monetary easing, absence of a push towards negative rates and rising US treasury yields keep buyers hopeful.
- Economic calendar welcomes the return of the US data, challenges to trading sentiment will be the key.
Gold prices extend corrective bounce off $1,856 while taking rounds to $1,865 amid the initial Asian session on Thursday. Following a heavy drop on Monday, to September month low, the yellow metal consolidated gains to $1,890, before marking the latest move around $1,856.34. The reason for the mixed trading could be traced from a lack of clear market direction amid mixed signals concerning the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the US election results, not to forget about the global monetary policy moves.
Virus, vaccine regains market attention…
With US President-elect Joe Biden notably clearing hurdles to the White House, gold traders pay a little heed to the American politics where Donald Trump keeps trying to defy the results. An additional incentive to ignore those headlines could come from the virus wave 2.0. Almost all US states getting an uncontrolled status report of the COVID-19, backed by record hospitalizations and daily cases rising past-100,000 in the last few days.
While the pandemic is reaffirming its grip over the world’s largest economy, vaccine makers are also trying their best to tame the deadly virus. Following upbeat news from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna is also up for releasing data for its huge trials and is mostly talked to have the same effectiveness as Pfizer-led cure.
To combat the pandemic-led woes, global central bankers stay ready to pump the markets beyond limits, while also refraining from the negative rates. The same push global traders to expect recoveries and keep a tab on the safe-havens. It should also be noted that the absence of the US trader offered additional limits on the yellow metal’s recent trading.
Even so, the US 10-year Treasury yields an inch closer to the 1.0% limit while Wall Street trades mixed.
Moving on, the latest data concerning the US inflation and jobless claims will welcome the American traders by offering fresh moves of the commodity. Joining the same will be the risk catalysts, as discussed above. As a result, the precious metal is expected to witness an improvement in trading conditions going forward.
Technical analysis
With sustained trading below 100-day EMA, currently around $1,875, gold bears remain hopeful to break September’s bottom near $1,848, which in turn will drag the quote southwards to the early July top of $1,818 before highlighting the 200-day EMA level of $1,794.
