Gold Price Prediction – Gold Slips Despite Soft Jobs Openings Data

Gold prices attempted to move higher on Tuesday but ran into resistance as the dollar gained traction paving the way for prices to sag.  US yields moved higher for the 3^rd consecutive trading day as riskier assets where buoyed. Higher US yields will drive the interest rate differential in favor of the US dollar which could put downward pressure on the yellow metal. Yields increase despite a report from the Department of Labor that showed job openings fell in November.

Technical Analysis

Gold prices where rangebound initially testing lower levels but then bouncing near support at the 10-day moving average at 1,280. Additional support is seen near the 50-day moving average at 1,237. Resistance is seen near the January highs at 1,298. Short term momentum has turned negative as the fast stochastic generated a crossover sell signal. The current reading on the fast stochastic is 80 which is the oversold trigger level. Positive momentum is decelerating as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) index is printing in the black with a downward sloping trajectory which points to consolidation. The trend remains upward sloping as seen by the trajectory of the 10-day moving average.

JOLTS Data is Disappointing as the Number of Openings Declined

The number of job openings in the US declined in November to the lowest level since June. The number of jobs available declined to 6.89 million down from 7.13 million in October according to the Labor Department. The peak was during the summer of 2018 at 7.3 million.  The number of job openings in November far exceed the number of people in the United States that claim they where unemployed or seeking work, as the difference is less than 1-million. The Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that this number was never positive until March of 2018 and then grew but narrowed for the first time in 8-months in November.