World gold price movements last week
The gold market last week continued to be dominated by developments related to the conflict with Iran. The first news about the possibility of a ceasefire helped the market recover on Tuesday evening, but precious metal traders remain skeptical about the medium-term outlook. They even doubt whether the ceasefire could last long enough for them to boldly open significant investment positions.
Spot gold prices opened the week at 4,630.61 USD/ounce. Like many recent times, the market quickly established a weekly bottom when the price retreated to the 4,600 USD/ounce test mark right after 8 pm on Sunday EDT.
From this level, gold prices increased steadily overnight, at times exceeding the 4,700 USD mark at around 5:15 PM US Eastern time, before the upward momentum weakened in the North American trading session.
By Monday evening, gold prices retreated to around 4.626 USD/ounce and continued to move sideways in a narrow range, as the market was tense waiting for the deadline on Tuesday evening that US President Donald Trump set for the US and Iran to reach an agreement.
When the two-week ceasefire agreement was announced on Tuesday afternoon, the market immediately reacted strongly. Gold prices jumped from $4,662 at 2:45 PM to $4,835 at 7:45 PM Eastern time.
However, after encountering resistance at this level around 2:30 am on Wednesday, gold prices turned down throughout European and North American trading sessions, falling back to near the 4,700 USD mark about an hour before the stock market closed.
After that, gold prices entered a state of accumulation as the market distilled information about a still unstable peace. In the remainder of the week, spot gold prices fluctuated in the range of 100 USD, from 4,700 to 4,800 USD/ounce.
Although the 4,800 USD threshold was still the resistance level throughout Friday afternoon, the bottom price has gradually been raised, thereby creating more expectations for investors that next week may be more positive for this precious metal.
Gold price forecast for next week
A weekly gold survey with Wall Street experts shows that both Wall Street analysts and individual investors are ready to return to the gold market.
14 Wall Street experts participated in the gold survey. Among them, half of the experts predicted gold prices would increase during the ceasefire period, while the majority remained cautious.
7 experts, equivalent to 50%, believe that gold prices will go up next week; 2 others, accounting for 14%, forecast prices to decrease. Meanwhile, the remaining 5 analysts, equivalent to 36% of the total opinion, believe that short-term risks are in a balanced state.
Meanwhile, Kitco's online survey recorded 51 participation votes, showing that the psychology of individual investors also improved as tensions cooled down.
There are 32 small traders, equivalent to 63%, expecting gold prices to increase next week; an additional 10 people, accounting for 20%, believe that this precious metal will decrease in price. The remaining 9 investors, equivalent to 18% of the total participants, predict that gold prices will continue to move sideways next week.
Economic data to be tracked next week
Next week, the economic data release schedule is quite sparse, but the market will still receive some important surveys on production activities and data on housing. In addition, traders will also monitor whether production price inflation continues its upward trend as the consumer price index (CPI) report announced this week.
On Monday morning, the market will welcome existing US home sales figures in March. On Tuesday, the focus will be on the March Producer Price Index (PPI) report - considered the most important economic data of the week.
By Wednesday, investors will focus on the Empire State manufacturing survey. The weekly data series will close on Thursday morning with the weekly unemployment claims report and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve (Philadelphia Fed) manufacturing survey.
See more news related to gold prices HERE...
