Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD struggles to build a cushion around $1,740, Fed Powell’s speech eyed

• Gold price has shifted into an inventory adjustment after a sheer decline amid a downbeat market mood.
• The USD Index is aiming to smash the 107.00 hurdle amid an improvement in safe-haven’s appeal.
• Fed’s Mester needs more good inflation reports for supporting the rate hike pause scenario.

Gold price (XAU/USD) has turned sideways in the early Asian session after a perpendicular downfall above the key resistance of $1,760.00. The precious metal is building a cushion of around $1,740.00, at the time of writing. Later, it will be discovered whether the inventory adjustment is an accumulation or a distribution.

The risk profile is still negative, therefore, the odds are favoring the inventory adjustment as a distribution one. The US Dollar Index (DXY) is displaying back-and-forth moves around 106.70 and is aiming to kiss the critical resistance of 107.00 ahead. Meanwhile, the 10-year US Treasury yields are still auctioning below 3.70% despite hawkish commentaries from Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers.

New York Fed Bank President John Williams is favoring pushing the interest rates to a restrictive level solid enough to propel inflation down and holding them till CY2024. Also, Cleveland Fed Bank President Loretta Mester believes that the Fed is not near to a pause in a rate hike, as reported by Financial Times. She added that more good inflation reports and more signs of moderation are required before building an action plan of pausing rate hikes.

Gold technical analysis

On an hourly scale, gold price is struggling to hold itself above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement (plotted from November 3 low at $1,616.69 to November 15 high at $1,758.88) at $1,746.50. The precious metal has surrendered the critical support of the 200-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $1,748.10, which was acting as major support earlier.

Meanwhile, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) (14) has shifted into the bearish range of 20.00-40.00, which indicates more weakness ahead.

Gold hourly chart