Gold technical analysis: Remains vulnerable near 2-week lows, NFP eyed for bearish confirmation

• Weakness below an ascending trend-line seems to have confirmed a bearish breakdown.
• Sustained break through the $1500 handle will reinforce the near-term bearish outlook.

Gold added to the previous session’s steep decline and dropped to fresh two-week lows, closer to the key $1500 psychological mark ahead of the US monthly jobs report.  Repeated failures to find acceptance above the $1550 region and the overnight break below 100-hour SMA pivotal point turned out to be a key trigger for bearish traders.
 
A follow-through selling below a three-week-old ascending trend-line now seems to have confirmed a bearish breakdown and support prospects for further weakness. Meanwhile, technical indicators on hourly charts have been gaining bearish traction and also losing positive momentum on the daily chart, which reinforces the negative outlook.
 
Decisive break through the $1500 handle will reaffirm the bearish set-up and set the stage for an extension of the commodity’s corrective slide from multi-year tops.  The downward trajectory could then drag Gold towards testing an intermediate support near the $1486-85 region en-route August 13 swing lows support near the $1477 area.
 
The latter coincides with 50% Fibo. level of the $1400-$1557 recent upsurge, which if broken should pave the way for further depreciating move amid renewed trade optimism.  

On the flip side, any attempted recovery might now confront some fresh supply near the ascending trend-line support breakpoint, now turned resistance around the $1514-15 region.  This is closely followed by 23.6% Fibo. level near the $$1520-21 region, above which a bout of short-covering might accelerate the up-move back towards $1532 level (100-hour SMA).

Gold 1-hourly chart