
The spot gold futures contract is trading back above $1,800 per ounce after hitting an intraday high price level of $1,791.63 during Wall Street hours. Traders are assessing the delay of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda as well as the Omicron Covid-19 variant. These are souring market sentiment.
This is the last trading day before Christmas Eve. The world’s biggest economy, the United States, will release weekly initial continuing jobless claims from the Labor Department. The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the monthly core PCE price deflator will also be published.
The U.S. is also set to release monthly core and headline durable goods orders. The University of Michigan is publishing their monthly consumer sentiment and expectations indices.
The European Union and the United Kingdom have no top tier economic data scheduled for release on Thursday. The Covid-19 Omicron variant is dominating and should cause price drifting with the spot gold contract.
Daily Spot Gold Technical Analysis
Looking at the above daily spot gold futures contract price chart, the key daily simple moving averages are flat possible signaling some indecision an consolidation. The spot contract (XAU/USD) is confined to a broad range from $1,787 to $1,800.
A daily close above $1,800 per ounce is needed for the bulls to come in but seller are eying support lining up at the 16 December low price pivot of $1,775.40.
A close below the 16 December low price pivot of $1,775.40 opens the door for the bullion sellers to challenge the 2 December low price point $1,761.72 per ounce. The next downside level is at the 15 December low price point at $1,752.45 per ounce.
On the upside, a sustained close above the psychological level of $1,800 per ounce opens the door for the spot contract to challenge the 3 September swing high lining up at $1,834 per ounce.