- Nonfarm payrolls rose 20K in February.
- US Dollar Index retreats below 97.40.
- Wall Street opens deep in the negative territory.
The XAU/USD pair recovered above the $1290 mark earlier in the day and stayed in a consolidation channel while waiting for the labour market data from the United States. With the nonfarm payrolls data disappointing markets, the greenback came under strong bearish pressure and the pair extended its rebound above the critical $1300 mark. As of writing, the pair was trading at $1299, adding 1%, or 13$, on the day. With today’s decisive upsurge, the pair moved into the positive territory on the weekly chart as well.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday unveiled that the total nonfarm employment in the U.S. increased by 20,000 and missed the experts’ forecast of 180,000 by a wide margin. On a positive note, January’s reading got revised up to 311,000 from 304,000 and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8% from 4%. Finally, the average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% and 3.4% on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively. The US Dollar Index continued to pull away from the 2019 high that it set at 97.71 yesterday and was last seen down 0.25% on the day at 97.37.
Meanwhile, the disappointing data weighed on major equity indexes and allowed safe-havens to continue to find demand. At the moment, the risk-sensitive Nasdaq Composite is losing more than 1% on the day and the S&P 500 is down 0.8%.
Technical levels to watch for
With a weekly close above $1300 (psychological level), the pair could target $1305.50 (50-DMA) and $1313 (20-DMA). On the downside, supports align at $1285 (daily low), $1280 (Mar. 7 low) and $1276 (Jan. 24 low).
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