Gold prices stay strong ahead of the US NFP report

Gold prices rose further on Friday morning, pressing important technical barriers ahead of the key US NFP report.

The metal has gained around 1.7% so far this week, benefiting from a weaker dollar driven by soft US macroeconomic data, which suggest a slowing US economy and boost bets for a possible Fed rate cut in September.

Economists expect the US economy to have added 191K new jobs in June, compared to a 272K increase the previous month. A weaker-than-expected June NFP figure would reinforce recent signals and further lift gold prices. Conversely, above-consensus June numbers would indicate labor market resilience, diminishing expectations for a rate cut and making gold less attractive.

Technical studies remain overall bullish on the daily chart, but strong obstacles at $2368/71 (50% retracement of $2450/$2286 / daily cloud top) need to be cleared to signal a continuation of the recovery from the higher base around the $2290 zone and expose targets at $2387/$2400 (61.8% Fibo retracement / psychological level).

Initial support lies at $2349 (broken 38.2% Fibo retracement), followed by $2337/30 pivots (converging daily Kijun/Tenkan-sen), the loss of which would be bearish.

Res: 2371; 2378; 2387; 2400
Sup: 2329; 2337; 2330; 2319