Jakarta, GIC Trade – Gold was steady around $1,960 an ounce on Wednesday but was still set to end the month lower, weighed down by hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve expectations and news that a tentative U.S. debt ceiling deal was reached over the weekend. 
 
Strong U.S. economic data supports expectations that the Federal Reserve can tighten policy again in June and keep interest rates higher for longer. 
 
Markets now value the higher chance that the Fed will deliver another 25 basis point rate hike in June, a shift from previous expectations for a pause in the tightening cycle. 
 
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement on raising the upper limit of US bt over the weekend, disrupting safe-haven demand for bullion. 
 
Elsewhere, weaker-than-expected data on manufacturing and services activity in China sparked fears of a slowdown in economic growth in the world's largest gold consumer.
 
Apart from the pre-data positioning and month-end consolidation, the XAU/USD price also benefited from mixed US data, as well as China's readiness for more stimulus amid downbeat activity figures.
 
Going forward, the US JOTLS job vacancy data and the release of the Fed's Beige Book will be closely monitored. According to forecasts, the total job openings have dropped to 9.375 million vs the previous release of 9.59 million.
 
Fundamentally, strong U.S. economic data supported expectations that the Federal Reserve could tighten policy again in June and keep interest rates higher for longer, weighing on gold prices. Then how technically, see the following analysis:
 
Technical Analysis

 
Gold prices in the 1-hour period tried to move up, touching the resistance area at 1967.30 until heading to the next resistance level at 1981.10. Meanwhile, from the FXBot template, a bearish trend can be seen supported by a sell signal indicated by a red arrow.
 
Gold (XAU/USD) prices have shown some recovery after maintaining their nearest support at $1,950.00 in the Tokyo session. In general, precious metals consolidated in the $1,953-1,960 range as investors awaited the release of the United States Employment data.
 
This analysis is a fundamental and technical view used by the author, not a suggestion or invitation. To get more information click on the image below.