Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – September 1, 2017 Forecast

December Comex Gold futures are trading slightly higher shortly ahead of the regular session opening and the U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls report.

The NFP report, due to be released at 1230 GMT, is expected to show the economy added 180,000 jobs in August. The unemployment rate is expected to remain the same at 4.3% and Average Hourly Earnings are expected to increase 0.2%.

ISM Manufacturing PMI will be released at 1400 GMT. It is expected to come in at 56.5.

Any misses to the downside in the NFP report, especially average hourly earnings, will be bullish for gold.

Gold is likely to weaken if the headline number comes in north of 209,000, or if average hourly earnings increase by more than 0.2%.

Technical Analysis

The main trend is up according to the daily swing chart. A trade through $1331.90 will signal a resumption of the uptrend. This could trigger an acceleration to the upside with $1353.00 the next major target.

A trade through $1302.30 will be a sign of weakness. Taking out $1281.30 will change the main trend to down.

The short-term range is $1281.30 to $1331.90. Its retracement zone at $1306.60 to $1300.60 is the primary downside target and current support zone. This area stopped the selling on Thursday at $1302.30.

Forecast

Based on the early price action, the resistance is $1325.90 and $1328.90. The latter is the last potential resistance angle before the $1331.90 main top.

On the downside, the key uptrending angle is $1321.30. If this angle fails then we could see an acceleration to the downside since the nearest support is $1306.60 to $1300.60.

Basically, look for a bullish tone to develop on a sustained move over $1331.90 and a bearish tone on a sustained move under $1321.30.