Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD trades with modest losses as investors look to US CPI report

• Gold comes under renewed selling pressure on Thursday amid more hawkish cues from the Fed.
• Aggressive Fed rate hike bets remain supportive of elevated US bond yields and exert pressure.
• Subdued USD price action, recession fears could offer some support ahead of the US CPI report.

Gold struggles to capitalize on the previous day's recovery move from the $1,660 support zone and meets with a fresh supply on Thursday. The XAU/USD remains depressed through the early European session and is currently placed near the daily low, just below the $1,670 level.

More hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve remain supportive of elevated US Treasury bond yields and continue to act as a headwind for the non-yielding gold. In fact, minutes of the FOMC policy meeting on September 20-21, released on Wednesday, showed that policymakers unanimously agreed to push monetary policy into restrictive territory. Moreover, officials remain committed to keeping interest rates high for a longer period as the central bank struggles to bring down inflation.

Hence, the focus will remain glued to the crucial US CPI report, due for release later during the early North American session. Given that US Producer Price Index climbed more than expected in September, investors anticipate consumer inflation to remain stubbornly high and reinforce the Fed's hawkish rhetoric. Nevertheless, the key US inflation figures will influence the size of the US central bank's next interest rate hike and provide a fresh directional impetus to gold.

In the meantime, subdued US dollar price action could offer support to the dollar-denominated gold amid a relatively quiet trading action. Furthermore, concerns about economic headwinds stemming from rapidly rising borrowing costs, geopolitical risks and a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in China warrants caution for aggressive bearish traders. Hence, it will be prudent to wait for strong follow-through selling below the $1,660 level before positioning for some meaningful downside.

Technical levels to watch