Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD pulls away from daily highs, trades above $1,725

• XAU/USD struggled to hold above $1,730 on Friday.
• Risk-off market environment helps gold continue to find demand as a safe-haven.
• Investors are waiting for US President Trump’s announcement on China. 

The troy ounce of the precious metal advanced to a fresh daily high of $1,733 during the early trading hours of the American session but struggled to preserve its momentum. As of writing, the XAU/USD pair was trading at $1,727,60, gaining 0.5% on a daily basis.

The broad-based selling pressure surrounding the USD and the dismal market mood helped the pair gain traction on Friday. 

Later in the day, US President Donald Trump will hold a news conference about China and investors remain cautious ahead of this event. At the moment, Wall Street’s main indexes are posting modest losses to help the safe-haven gold preserve its strength.

USD erases small part of daily losses

On the other hand, the data published by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that Personal Spending in April declined by 13.6% on a monthly basis. However, further details of the publication showed that Personal Income in the same period surprisingly rose by 10.5%. 

With the initial market reaction to the data, the US Dollar Index (DXY) dropped to a multi-month low of 97.95 but recovered modestly in the last hour. At the moment, the DXY is still down 0.3% on the day 98.15.

Other data from the US on Friday will include the University of Michigan’s Consumer Confidence Index. More importantly, US President Trump’s presser at 1800 GMT will be watched closely by the market participants.

Technical levels to watch for