Gold prices went up late on Thursday in North America. This was because there were worries about problems between Iran and Israel. Also, some officials from the Federal Reserve said things that made people think interest rates might go up, which made the US dollar stronger.
The price for gold, called XAU/USD, reached $2,384, going up more than 1%. It had started the day lower at $2,361. Big banks’ speakers talked a lot on Thursday, which made people pay less attention to new numbers about how the US economy is doing.
One of the Federal Reserve’s members, Raphael Bostic, said that prices are going up too much, and the Fed still needs to do more to keep them under control. He also said that the Fed won’t lower interest rates. John Williams, another Fed member, said the Fed is watching how things go and that they’re not in a hurry to change interest rates. But he also said if they need to, they might raise rates.
After Bostic said this and when new data came out showing that the number of people asking for job help stayed the same as before, gold prices kept going up.
Market Movers Daily Digest: Gold Remains Unfazed by Rising Yields and Robust US Data
The US Department of Labor shared some news about jobs. They said that fewer people asked for job help last week, with only 212,000 people doing so. This was less than what experts expected, which was 215,000. The number of people who still need job help, called Continuing Jobless Claims, went up a bit from the week before, reaching 1.812 million. But it was still lower than what experts predicted, which was 1.818 million.
There was also news about factories in Philadelphia. They did really well, with the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index jumping to 15.5. This was much better than what experts thought, which was only 1.5.
However, there was some not-so-good news about home sales in the US. They went down by 4.3% from the previous month, which means fewer homes were sold compared to before.
People were also looking at what might happen with interest rates in the US. Some tools that predict these things suggest there might be a cut in September, although the chances of this happening went down a bit from the day before.
Even though there was some good news about the US economy, many are still worried about problems happening in the Middle East. Things calmed down a bit after Israel said they weren’t going to attack Iran yet, but the US is planning to put more sanctions on Iran soon.
The value of the US dollar, compared to other currencies, went down a bit. And predictions about how much the US economy will grow in the first quarter of this year went up a bit, suggesting it might grow by 2.9%.
Technical Analysis: Gold’s Rise Defies Overbought RSI Levels
The price of gold is still looking positive, and in the last few days, it seems to have formed a pattern on the chart that suggests it might keep going up. Even though a measure called the Relative Strength Index (RSI) says it’s been going up a lot lately, which could mean it’s overbought, the pattern suggests it could keep going up.
However, for it to keep rising, it needs to break through a price barrier at $2,400. If it manages to do that, it could go even higher, maybe reaching $2,431.78 or even $2,500.
But if gold starts to go down instead, the first support level, or a price where it might stop falling, could be around $2,350. If it goes lower than that, it might drop to around $2,324, and if it keeps falling after that, it might reach $2,300.
