After surging at the start of the week, gold's movement is seen to be more flat heading into trade at the end of the week as investors become more cautious ahead of the release of the United States (US) NFP jobs data report.
The movement of the current gold price is influenced by the US dollar which is seen to have started to show a strengthening pattern after moving weakly since last week.
The strengthening of the USD shown last Wednesday has curbed the surge in gold prices after its initial rise had reached a price level around $1,729.
This can be examined on the XAU/USD price chart which measures the value of gold against the US dollar with the increase that was displayed at the beginning of the week blocked at the 1720.00 zone until Thursday yesterday.
The US dollar's strengthening pressure has sparked early expectations of a trend change for gold as prices began to move below the Moving Average 50 (MA50) barrier level on the 1-hour time frame on the XAU/USD chart.
Today's price movement is seen to be more flat and slow around 1710.00 and hovering below the MA50 barrier for a bearish signal.
If the price of gold begins to fall again, the 1700.00 zone is seen to be the initial price support that will be tested before a further drop in the price will lead to the RBS (resistance become support) zone of 1680.00.
However, if gold manages to bounce back past the 1720.00 zone and overcome this week's high, the zone around 1740.00 will be the focus for continued price increases.
Next, for the gold price to continue to rise higher, the height at 1760.00 will be the target for the price to record the latest 6-week high.
Investors will be looking forward to the release of the US NFP jobs data report in the New York session shortly with the expectation that there will be a drastic move for the trading close this week, before investors can assess the direction of further price movements.
