Precious metals remain cagey awaiting NFP trigger

After the more volatile start to the year, the past three days have been extremely calm for precious metals. Gold has been keeping within a $100 range this week while silver is only kept in a $5 horizon. That’s quite something after all the recent volatility spikes and corrective selling since the end of January.If anything, it does speak to some healthier price action and that we are starting to see things normalise. However, the bad news is that we could get another hit of volatility later today. And that will be one that is headline-induced. Yes, the focus and attention in markets right now are all turning towards the US labour market report.The non-farm payrolls release is the key risk event for today and that has the potential to cause up a stir in broader markets, including precious metals.The technical consolidation this week shows that we are waiting for a key trigger to drive the next momentum move for precious metals. And that could come today from the jobs data in the US.In the case of gold, the consolidation range sees it caught around the key hourly moving averages and the $5,100 mark for now. The former being the floor with the latter being the ceiling. Eventually, something’s gotta give.A break above $5,100 builds a stronger case for a continued rebound with little standing in the way of a resumption back towards the highs in January. Meanwhile, a break below the confluence of the 100 (red line) and 200-hour (blue line) moving averages will do the opposite. It will trigger stops again as dip buyers lose confidence as the near-term bias switches to being more bearish.The latter might very well start up talks of a deeper consolidation period for gold after the sharp pullback since two weeks ago.The same kind of mood is seen in price action for silver as well. The precious metal has relieved some downside pressure in keeping above the 100-hour moving average (red line) this week. However, it is still finding it tough to build any further momentum in extending the recent bounce.A drop back below the key near-term level will keep the recent downside pressure going. That especially with further profit-taking and weaker long positions being shaken out.On the flip side though, a jump back above the 200-hour moving average (blue line) will give dip buyers a potential spark to work with in building back the upside momentum. The early February high closer to $92.20 will be one to watch, with a break there at least helping to invalidate a potential lower highs, lower lows pattern for silver.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.

🔗 Source