• Russia remarked peace-talks progress ‘wrong’ leads to fear of ceasefire delay.
• Gold prices have fallen as Fed has raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point.
• Investors will focus on Ukraine crisis headlines to direct their move further.

Gold trades low against the US dollar and is trading around $1930 level on Friday Asian session as the US dollar gains strength amidst risk aversion market sentiment.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russia may be contemplating a chemical-weapons attack in the US last session, His words led to the rise of risk sentiment in the Market. Moreover fear of ceasefire delay between Russia and Ukraine has added to the risk sentiment.

As per reuters, “The Kremlin reportedly said that news pointing to progress in Ukraine-Russia peace talks was wrong.” This statement is against the Ukraine announcement. Ukraine announced that the nations are inching towards a tentative 15-point peace plan, which inculcates a ceasefire clause, swiftly.  This headline eased the traders however the recent response from Moscow creates sour sentiment in the market.

Apart from the Ukraine crisis, US central bank’s move to raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point favored the US dollar.

While officials signaled hikes at all six remaining meetings this year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell played down the risk of a recession and declared the economy strong enough to withstand tighter policy Higher rates tend to weigh on the non-interest-bearing bullion.

Meanwhile, The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee voted 8-1 to tighten by another 25bp to 0.75%, its pre-pandemic level. The Committee said “some further modest tightening in monetary policy may be appropriate in the coming months” (last meeting it was seen as “likely”). Subsequently, traders priced out a 50bp move.

XAU/USD 4 Hour Chart:

Support: 1926.9 (S1), 1911.8 (S2), 1900.4 (S3).

Resistance: 1953.5 (R1), 1964.9 (R2), 1980.1 (R3).

The fear of ceasefire delay between Russia- Ukraine favors the safe-haven gold, However the Fed’s rate hike underpins the USD bulls. Headlines of Ukraine crisis will be major catalysts in directing the pair further, In the meantime, We expect a bearish trend for XAU/USD.