Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD flirts with session lows near $1950, US GDP in focus

• Gold witnessed some profit-taking on Thursday and moved away from all-time highs.
• A modest USD rebound from two-year lows exerted some pressure on the commodity.
• A turnaround in the global risk sentiment did little to influence ahead of the US GDP.

Gold extended its steady intraday slide and was last seen hovering near the lower end of its daily trading range, just above the $1950 level.

The precious metal witnessed some profit-taking on Thursday and has now erased the previous day’s positive move to the $1981 area, or record highs retested in the aftermath of a more dovish Fed commentary. The US central bank reiterated to keep rates near zero until it is confident that the economy has weathered the recent events, which, in turn, underpinned the non-yielding yellow metal.

As investors looked past the latest FOMC policy update, the US dollar staged a goodish intraday rebound from more than two-years and exerted some pressure on the dollar-denominated commodity. Even the going downfall in the US Treasury bond yields and a sharp turnaround in the global risk sentiment failed to impress bulls or help revive the precious metal’s perceived safe-haven demand.

It will now be interesting to see if the metal is able to attract any buying interest at lower levels or Thursday’s fall marks the onset of a near-term corrective slide amid (still) overstretched conditions on the daily chart. Nevertheless, the USD price dynamics might continue to play a key role in influencing the commodity’s momentum as the focus now shifts to the advance US GDP report.

The world’s largest economy is expected to have collapsed by a record 34.1% during the second quarter of 2020. Any meaningful divergence from the expected figures might infuse some volatility and assist investors to grab some meaningful trading opportunities later during the early North American session.

Technical levels to watch