Skip to content

CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are complex financial instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Volatile session for gold prices ends higher despite bid greenback

Technical overview remains volatile, and trader bias still majority buy while anticipating further price gains.

Source: Bloomberg

Sign up for IG's Daily and Weekly Market Report to receive this information and more, in an elaborate and comprehensive report recounting the forex majors, commodities and indices before the European open.

The focus yesterday was on European banks that took a tumble and were led by the troubled Credit Suisse. Since then, the troubled investment bank has recieved a lifeline from the Swiss National Bank and planning to borrow up to Sfr50bn.

For the FX market, both yen and greenback were bid, and while plenty of commodities priced against the US dollar were in retreat, safe haven gold wasn’t one of them with its price finishing higher after a volatile session. Its precious metal cousin silver was up by a smaller percentage, but the same couldn’t be said for platinum and more so palladium suffering a big red finish.

As for Treasury yields that have been suffering a spike in volatility (MOVE within '08 crisis levels), they finished the session lower recovering partially as of writing this morning. In real terms, they droped and less notable on the further end of the curve, with breakeven inflation rates little changed for the 5 and 10-year.

Market pricing (Refinitiv) is showing by the majority a 25bp (basis point) rate hike from the US Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting next week, but the 4.75%-5% will be the peak with rate cuts starting from July onwards.

US economic data showed producer prices for February dropped 0.1% which was surprisingly positive on the pricing front given expectations were for an increase, with a y/y (year-on-year) print of 4.6% from 6% prior, its core which excludes food and energy unchanged month-on-month while y/y was at 4.4% from 5%.

Retail sales for the same month were down 0.4% and by 0.1% when excluding autos. Housing data showed the weekly mortgage applications rise 6.5% after a +7.4% reading last time around, and NAHB's index for March remain below 50 signifying a negative outlook but improve to 44 from 42 prior.

Empire's manufacturing for the same month was a clear miss at -24.6.

More housing data today with building permits and housing starts, as well as the weekly claims, with tomorrow's focus on preliminary consumer data out of the University of Michigan that includes inflation expectations.

Gold Technical analysis, overview, strategies, and levels

While it was a volatile session, the initial moves favoured contrarian buy-after-reversals off its previous 1st Support level that only just held with intraday lows just shy of its stop loss (S/L) after offering a bit to conformist sell-breakout strategies.

The moves thereafter went past its previous 1st and 2nd Resistance levels stopping out contrarian sell-after-reversals and giving conformist buy-breakouts plenty to cheer about, even if prices are back beneath their previous 1st Resistance as of writing this morning.

Source: IG

IG client* and CoT** sentiment for gold

In sentiment, price gains usually result in a drop in retail trader buy bias, but it has risen instead from majority long 61% to 63%, with silver unchanged at an extreme buy 88% and so too platinum at 86%.

We got another CoT release last Wednesday as they catch up with the latest figures, still showing large speculators holding a heavy buy bias that has risen to 68%. CoT silver however, shifted from majority buy 56% to the middle, platinum majority long 55%, and palladium an opposite extreme sell 80%.

Source: IG

Gold chart with retail and institutional sentiment

Source: IG
  • *The percentage of IG client accounts with positions in this market that are currently long or short. Calculated to the nearest 1%, as of today morning 7am for the outer circle. Inner circle is from the previous trading day.
  • **CoT sentiment taken from the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders report: outer circle is from positioning as of February 28th, inner circle as of February 21st.

This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients.
CFDs are a leveraged products. CFD trading may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your initial deposit, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

Start trading forex today

Find opportunity on the world’s most-traded – and most-volatile – financial market

  • Trade spreads from just 0.6 points on EUR/USD
  • Analyse with clear, fast charts
  • Speculate wherever you are with our intuitive mobile apps

See an FX opportunity?

Try a risk-free trade in your demo account, and see whether you’re onto something.

  • Log in to your demo
  • Try a risk-free trade
  • See whether your hunch pays off

See an FX opportunity?

Don’t miss your chance – upgrade to a live account to take advantage.

  • Get spreads from just 0.6 points on popular pairs
  • Analyse and deal seamlessly on fast, intuitive charts
  • See and react to breaking news in-platform

See an FX opportunity?

Don’t miss your chance. Log in to take your position.

Live prices on most popular markets

  • Forex
  • Shares
  • Indices

Prices above are subject to our website terms and agreements. Prices are indicative only. All shares prices are delayed by at least 15 mins.

Plan your trading week

Get the week’s market-moving news sent directly to your inbox every Friday. The Week Ahead gives you a full calendar of upcoming economic events, as well as commentary from our expert analysts on the key markets to watch.

For more info on how we might use your data, see our privacy notice and access policy and privacy webpage.

You might be interested in…

Find out what charges your trades could incur with our transparent fee structure.

Discover why so many clients choose us, and what makes us a world-leading provider of CFDs.

Stay on top of upcoming market-moving events with our customisable economic calendar.