Driven mainly by the US election and economic figures last week, the gold price pulled back from the newly formed record high. With the US election approaching, the gold market opened strong early last week. A better-than-expected US consumer confidence on Tue. led to a breakthrough of the previous high at 2758 (1), triggering a new round of S-T buying until it reached 2790 and the US 3Q GDP and ADP employment on Wed. However, the upward momentum reversed on Thursday after the core PCE inflation data, setting off a round of short-selling and profit-taking pushing gold prices back below the 2750-2758 resistance zone(3). Friday’s US employment data fell significantly below expectations, but the gold price still failed to close above 2758(3), the week ended at 2735.

Gold prices retreated from 2790 with significant profit-taking action reflected in the number of COMEX gold open interest on Oct. 31st. The profit-taking activities should persist early this week ahead of two major events (the US election and the Federal Reserve interest rate meeting). Unless there is a strong market reaction with a Trump victory or additional aggressive rate cuts from the US Fed. sparking a new round of S-T buying, it is unlikely that gold prices will reach over 2790 this week.

1-hr chart (above) > Gold price broke the support line (2) last week, indicating a slowdown of the upward momentum. The selling pressure was relatively strong above 2758(3) as the price failed to clear the resistance zone(3) after the extremely weak US employment figures last Friday. Before the result of the US election and the US Fed., the S-T trading range is now set at 2710-2750 (4).

Daily Chart (above) > The Gold price was rejected by the upper resistance of the uptrend channel (5) last week, followed by a single-day drop of over $40 last Thursday, an S-T reversal signal has appeared on the daily chart. Investors are waiting for the news to impact the market from the US election and the US Fed. meeting, the S-T trend should remain bearish for now. The first target on the daily chart is at 2715 (6) and the 20-day moving average (7).

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