Gold Price Forecast: XAUUSD licks its wounds around $1,770 amid sluggish markets

• Gold price recovers after a two-day downtrend, stays pressured on the weekly basis.
• Market’s consolidation and lack of major data/events allowed XAUUSD to pare weekly loss.
• Softer US data, hopes of more relief from US President Biden teased gold buyers amid a light calendar, inactive markets.

Gold price (XAUUSD) probes the two-day downtrend as it prints mild gains around $1,762 during Friday’s Asian session. Even so, the precious metal remains on the way to posting the first weekly loss in three.

The bullion’s latest gains could be linked to the technical rebound amid a light calendar and sluggish macros. Also likely to have favored the Gold price could be the latest headlines suggesting a relief for the US students, as well as the previous day’s mixed data.

That said, CNBC came out with the news suggesting that the Biden Administration will ask Supreme Court to allow the student loan debt relief program to resume. On the other hand, downbeat prints of the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index and housing numbers for October might have raised doubts about the recently hawkish Fedspeak.

On the same line could be the latest Reuters poll for the US Federal Reserve (Fed) as it states that the Federal Reserve will downshift in December to deliver 50 basis points (bps) interest rate hike, but a longer period of US central bank tightening and a higher policy rate peak are the greatest risks to the current outlook.

Additionally, recently upbeat US stock futures and firmer prints of the equities in the Asia-Pacific region seemed to have also favored the XAUUSD bulls.

Given the light calendar and the metal’s latest corrective bounce, the bears will be in need to closely observe the risk catalysts to keep the reins.

Technical analysis

Gold price justifies an upside break of a two-day-old descending trend line to print mild gains around $1,762. However, an impending bear cross on the hourly chart, portrayed by the 50-HMA’s piercing off the 100-HMA from above, keeps the XAUUSD sellers hopeful.

That said, the recently crossed resistance-turned-support line, near $1,760, precedes the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of November 09-15 upside, around $1,754 to restrict the metal’s immediate downside.

Meanwhile, recovery remains elusive unless the quote stays below the convergence of the stated Hourly Moving Averages (HMAs) near $1,770.

Gold price: Hourly chart

Trend: Limited upside expected