World gold price movements last week
Gold prices this week fluctuated across the range from 5,000 USD to 5,240 USD/ounce, with a steady upward trend until Tuesday morning, then a slow but prolonged downward trend until Friday afternoon, as investors increasingly worried about the possibility that the war in the Middle East would drag on and become more complicated.
Spot gold opened the week at 5,159.26 USD/ounce, but quickly experienced a sharp weakening at the beginning of the week when it plunged straight to 5,036.25 USD at 8:00 PM on Sunday (Eastern US time).
After rebounding and regaining the 5,100 USD mark, gold began a stable upward trend. Spot prices reached 5,140 USD at 3:15 PM, 5,153 USD at 6:45 PM, and continued to climb to 5,184 USD at 9:45 PM on Monday.
After many times failing to surpass the 5,190 USD mark in Asian and European trading sessions, traders in North America quickly pushed this precious metal up to 5, 221 USD/ounce just 15 minutes before the stock market opened, and continued to rise to the week's highest level of nearly 5,240 USD/ounce at 11:30 am on Tuesday (Eastern time).
However, the upward momentum in this high price zone did not last long. The third attempt to set a new peak failed immediately after 1:00 PM, causing gold prices to fall back below the 5,200 USD/ounce mark. When this level became a strong resistance zone, gold began a three-day downward streak, falling to 5,134 USD/ounce at 7:45 PM on Wednesday.
After a recovery to $5.190/ounce continued to fail early Thursday morning, gold prices quickly slipped to $5.072/ounce shortly after the North American stock market closed.
In Asian and European sessions, spot gold fluctuated in the range of about 40 USD around the 5,100 USD/ounce mark. When the North American market opened on Friday, gold prices from 5,112 USD/ounce quickly fell to 5,042 USD/ounce in just one hour, before setting a new week low of 5,030 USD/ounce at noon (Eastern time).
By the end of the session, gold prices ended the week only about 10 USD higher than the important support level of 5,000 USD/ounce.
Gold price forecast for next week
Kitco News' latest weekly gold survey shows that Wall Street analysts are in a state of hesitation about the short-term trend of gold prices.
This week, 15 experts participated in the survey. Six experts, accounting for 40%, predict that gold prices may increase next week. With the same rate, six other analysts believe that gold prices will decrease. The remaining three experts, equivalent to 20%, believe that the risk of increase and decrease is in a balanced state in the short term.
Meanwhile, Kitco's online survey attracted 270 individual investors to participate. The results showed that the psychology of this group of investors was almost unchanged compared to the previous week, although there was a slight shift from a pessimistic to neutral view.
There are 169 individual traders, equivalent to 63%, who believe that gold prices will increase next week. About 32 people, accounting for 12%, predict that the precious metal may continue to decrease. The rest, including 69 investors, equivalent to 26%, believe that gold prices are likely to move sideways and accumulate next week.
Economic data to be tracked next week
Next week's economic news schedule will mainly revolve around interest rate decisions, as central banks of many major economies successively announce monetary policies. Accordingly, decisions will be made in order from the Central Banks of Australia, Canada, USA, Japan, Switzerland, UK and the European region.
In addition to interest rate announcements, the market will also receive important updates on the situation of key manufacturing sectors in the US, the developments of the housing market which is facing many difficulties, along with data on inflation at the producer level.
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