Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD juggles around $1,710 as investors await US NFP

• Gold prices are oscillating in a $4 range ahead of the US NFP data.
• The extent of the US NFP data will guide the further direction of gold prices.
• The DXY is trading lackluster despite soaring hawkish Fed bets.

Gold price (XAU/USD) is displaying topsy-turvy moves in a narrow range of $1,709.35-1,713.42 in the early European session. The precious metal is displaying a lackluster performance as the focus has shifted to the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data. At the press time, the yellow metal is attempting to deliver an upside break, however, the yields are defending the signs of the upside momentum loss, which could cap gains in gold prices. The 10-year US Treasury yields have recaptured the hurdle of 3.83%.

The mega event of the US NFP will prove a decisive direction ahead. As per the consensus, the US economy added 250k jobs in September. Wednesday’s release of the US Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Employment data reported an increment in payrolls by 208k. This indicates that the US NFP could release lower than projections. Apart from that, the Unemployment Rate is seen constant at 3.7%.

Meanwhile, the US dollar index (DXY) is continuously failing to sustain above the critical hurdle of 112.20 despite soaring hawkish bets for a fourth consecutive 75 basis points (bps) rate hike by the Federal Reserve (Fed). As per CME Fedwatch tool, chances of a 75 bps rate hike announced have soared above 73%.

Gold technical analysis

On a four-hour scale, the gold prices are oscillating around the 50% Fibonacci retracement (placed from an August 10 high at $1,807.93 to September low at $1,614.85) at $1,711.60. The precious metal has corrected to near the 20-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at around $1,709.00 after sensing barricades around $1,730.00.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) (14) has slipped into the 40.00-60.00 range from the bullish range of 60.00-80.00, which signals a loss in the upside momentum.

Gold four-hour chart