Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD struggles around $1,800 ahead of ISM Services PMI data

Gold price (XAU/USD) faces immense pressure to conquer the round-level resistance of $1,800.00 in the early Tokyo session. The precious metal is expected to display more gains and may extend towards a fresh three-month high at $1,824.63 as the upbeat US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) failed to fade the risk appetite theme.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) is looking to re-test the previous week’s low around 104.40 as the market participants believe that solid employment generation in November cannot fade expectations of a slowdown in the interest rate hike pace by the Federal Reserve (Fed). Also, the 10-year US Treasury yields have dropped below 3.50% and are not getting any intermediate cushion.

The economic catalyst investors are awaiting for further guidance is the United States ISM Services data, which will be released on Monday. The economic data is seen higher at 55.6 vs. the prior release of 54.4. Apart from that, the catalyst which will impact Gold prices is the ISM Services New Orders Index data. The economic data is expected to land higher at 58.5, which indicates robust demand by households that may provide a cushion to inflation ahead.

Gold technical analysis

On an hourly scale, the Gold price has picked up decent demand after a correction to near November 15 high at $1,777.32. The yellow metal aims to reclaim a three-month high at around $1,805.00. The Gold price has scaled above the 20-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $1,795.90 after sensing support from the 50-EMA around $1,790.00, which indicates that the short-term trend has tilted north.

Gold hourly chart