Gold tumbled badly last week after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the exiting of the bond buying will begin if the current trend of economic development continues and a break below two support levels of $1338 and April’s low of $1321 exacerbated the drop. Priced dropped to $1269.51 which is the lowest since September 2010 before having a small bounce on Friday to as high as $1302.46. Bernanke’s language was similar to previous statements reiterating any slowdown will be data dependant and he refrained from giving specific timelines which makes gold’s decline feel a little overdone. However the culmination of a stimulus withdrawal getting nearer and low inflation are hitting gold hard and leaving investors little reason for holding the metal but if uncertainty is around the corner, maybe triggered by China’s slowdown or the Fed’s exit plan or both, then this may help gold fight back and limit the slide.
Due to gold’s multi-year bull market there aren’t many clear standout support levels to help a strong bounce. $1156 is the next potential support level established after a bull market pullback in May 2010 however this is not comforting for the bulls given we are about $140 away from that level. Therefore more declines are expected but this week looks like we may see a rebound before more another downward leg after Friday printed a bullish harami and the RSI has recovered to the 30 level. If the stochastic can cross back above 20 with a cross of the fast and slow lines this will add to the probability of a bounce and take into account that price is also trading on the outside of the lower Bollinger Band signalling a forthcoming correction. Target level will be the 38.2% Fibonacci Retracement level at $1315 which should deliver some resistance and if price can push pass it will find more resistance at previous support level $1321. Gold was range bound between $1338 and $1423 for over 4 weeks across May and June and any break to the upside or downside is likely to dictate sentiment for the rest of the year therefore longer term position traders should consider shorts after corrections. Of course things can change if the US economic recovery has setbacks and stimulus prevails however right now things are very bearish for gold over the long term.
This week holds a relatively busy economic agenda mainly centred on the US. On Tuesday we have New Home Sales, US House Prices and the UK’s inflation report that could indirectly affect gold by moving the GBP/USD pair. On Wednesday there is a final measure of US growth for the 1st quarter which is expected to be 2.4% so be ready to trade following any surprises there. On Thursday we have the US Weekly Jobless Claims and Pending Home Sales and Friday brings a bunch of data releases from Japan covering inflation, house prices, retail and industrial output.
