In the past week, gold commodity trading showed a flat movement with the lowest value reached at $1,692 and the highest level reached at the end of the week at $1,729.
The US dollar, which failed to maintain its strengthening momentum despite Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell delivering a hawkish signal in his speech, is seen to ease pressure on gold trading as the US dollar retreats from a 20-year high.
The movement of the US dollar this week will be influenced by several releases of economic data from the United States (US) such as inflation data, producer price index, retail sales data as well as consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan.
The dollar index also continued its decline until it reached 108.36, giving the yellow metal an opportunity to continue its rise earlier this week.
Measuring the value of gold against the US dollar on the XAU/USD price chart, the price is seen to be still struggling to hold above the 1720.00 zone which became a resistance zone for the price during last week's trading.
Prices started trading at the beginning of the week around that level and showed a slow decline in the Asian session. However, continuing trading at the beginning of the European session, the price started to rise and slightly passed the 1720.00 zone.
The price surge also saw the price move above the Moving Average 50 (MA50) support level on the 1-hour time frame for a bullish trend movement signal.
A higher increase if continued will overcome the high level reached last Friday for the 1740.00 zone and will be the next price focus zone.
The price movement with a more clear bullish pattern is expected to push the price up to reach the 1760.00 level again for the price to test the important resistance zone as well as record the latest 3-week high level.
But be careful if the US dollar strengthens again and puts pressure on gold prices to drop lower this week.
A break back below the 1720.00 level and the MA50 support level will alert investors to a more severe fall for gold trading.
It is expected that the price will continue to decline and retest the 1700.00 zone which was the focus last week before the continued decline will test the support zone around 1790.00.
For a lower decline, the 1680.00 zone is seen to be the target as the price recorded the latest 8-week low after the last time it almost hit the price on July 21.
