Gold holds near-term trading range ahead of Fed minutes

By FXStreet Gold once again retreated from $1280 level and dropped back to $1270 level, holding its near-term trading pattern within a narrow range.

Gold bulls remain reluctant in lifting the precious metal beyond its recent trading range and avoided big bets ahead of the Fed minutes that could provide some hints over the timing of next Fed rate-hike decision. The minutes from April FOMC meeting are likely to reinforce that the central bank remains on track to announce at least two rate hike during 2016.

A stronger US Dollar also seems to contribute towards today’s weakness witnessed in the precious metal.

On Tuesday, the yellow metal shrugged off upbeat US CPI print for April and found support from sell-off in US equity markets. However, hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials restricted further up-move for the metal.

At the time of writing, the yellow metal was trading lower by 0.5% at $1272, still holding above 20-day SMA. Today’s FOMC meeting minutes would be the next big fundamental trigger that would assist the precious metal to break-out of the recent trading range.

Technical levels to watch

On the immediate downside, bulls would look to defend 20-day SMA support near $1267 region, below which the metal could …read more

Source:: FX Street