The gold commodity continued to strengthen at the end of last week's trading, but slightly stagnated following the publication of the United States (US) manufacturing and service sector PMI data, which made the market movement uncertain and analysts assessed the occurrence of profit taking activities by investors at the close of the week's trading.
The main focus of investors this week will be on the results of the FOMC meeting with the Federal Reserve (Fed) expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points for the second time after doing so at the previous meeting.
The decline in US 10-year bond yields is also seen to continue to add pressure to US dollar trading and give room for gold to continue to post gains this week, but the results of the FOMC meeting will drive prices at the end of the week.
Pay attention to the price movement on the XAU/USD chart which measures the value of gold against the US dollar, investors have seen the price rise last Friday which managed to break through the barrier level of 1720.00 and record a high level around 1739.00.
However, after reaching that height, the price retreated again to hover around the 1720.00 level until trading resumed at the market opening earlier this week.
Still signaling a bullish movement, the price remained above the Moving Average 50 (MA50) support level on the 1-hour time frame after the surge in gold prices last Thursday from the level near 1680.00 and then crossed the MA50 level.
If continued upward price movement is exhibited this week, the price barrier level of 1760.00 will be the main focus to be tested if the price manages to overcome the high level reached last week.
Next, for a higher increase gold is expected to go to the 1785.00 zone before going to the 1800.00 concentration zone.
On the other hand, if the price shrinks again below the 1720.00 level, the price drop will trigger an expected bearish trend change after passing the MA50 support level.
A lower decline is seen to retest the support at 1680.00 after passing the 1700.00 zone to hover again at the lowest level since last March 2021 trading.
