XAUUSD - Demand for gold continues to decline
Gold prices show a slight increase, retreating from their April 2020 record lows, updated the day before, and trying to consolidate above 1630 amid increasing uncertainty about the global economic outlook.
The pressure on the XAUUSD pair remains, as the market expects further tightening of monetary policy by global financial regulators. In particular, the US Federal Reserve may go for at least one more major interest rate hike before the end of the year. In turn, the Bank of England may hold an emergency meeting in order to correct the rate, although it was previously noted that the regulator plans to take a wait-and-see position until November.
Demand for contracts based on the precious metal continues to decline: this week, the rate of liquidation of transactions for sale significantly exceeds the statistics for purchases. According to the report of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), last week the number of net speculative positions in gold decreased to 65.7 thousand from 97.3 thousand a week earlier. As for the balance of sellers and buyers, the "bears" still hold the lead in the positions of swap dealers, and their number is 150.801 thousand against 96.613 thousand for the "bulls". This week, buyers again increased the number of contracts by 6.691 thousand, which is almost 10 times more than last week's increase, while sellers reduced their positions by 21.070 thousand contracts, which is 4 times higher than the rate of liquidation last week.
Bollinger Bands in D1 chart demonstrate a stable decrease. The price range expands from below, making way for new local lows for the "bears". MACD is declining keeping a weak sell signal (located below the signal line). Stochastic retains downward direction but is located in close proximity to its lows, which indicates the risks of oversold gold in the ultra-short term.
Resistance levels: 1640, 1653.92, 1675, 1688.58 | Support levels: 1620, 1600, 1579.25, 1562.7