Fundamental view:

Gold initially traded high but later dropped against its US dollar rival during the trading course of the week. Hawkish comments from the Fed policymakers boosted the USD, weighing on the yellow metal. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that the Fed might want to consider 75 basis points rate hikes and also reiterated that the policy rate needs to rise to 3.5% by the end of the year to tame inflation. While speaking at the IMF Spring Meetings on Thursday, FOMC Chairman Powell reiterated that they are planning to get interest rates “expeditiously” to neutral. Powell also said that 50 bps rate increases will be on the table moving forward. Speaking about the state of the US economy, Powell noted that the US labor market was still very tight and that the economy was very strong.

The risk- off market sentiment due to the lack of progress on the Russia-Ukraine diplomacy front and the Shanghai lockdown disturbing the supply chain which in turn would slow the economic progress failed to boosted the safe-haven precious metal – Gold this week.              

The major economic events deciding the movement of the pair in the next week are Core Durable Goods Orders monthly report, CB Consumer Confidence Index at Apr 26, EIA Crude Oil Stocks Change at Apr 27, GDP quarterly report, Initial Jobless Claims at Apr 28, Employment Cost Index quarterly report and Michigan Consumer Sentiment at Apr 29 for US.

XAU/USD Weekly outlook:

Technical View:

Last week’s high was 0.85% higher than the previous week. Maintaining high at 1998.3 and low at 1926.4 showed a movement of 719 pips.

In the upcoming week we expect XAU/USD to show a bullish trend. The Instrument is trading below the 200 Simple Moving Average and the MACD trades to the downside. A solid breakout above 1977.3 may open a clean path towards 2023.7 and may take a way up to 2049.2. Should 1905.4 prove to be unreliable support, the XAUUSD may sink downwards 1879.9 and 1833.5 respectively. In H4 chart bullish butterfly pattern favors prospects of a bullish trend. Also to be noted Hammer formation exerts the expectation of uptrend for the pair.