Gold (XAU/USD) maintains its heavily offered tone heading into the European session and currently trades just above a one-week low, touched earlier this Friday. The US Dollar (USD) retains its bullish bias near the highest level since May 2025 in the face of the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) hawkish tilt, which, in turn, is seen driving flows away from the non-yielding bullion for the third straight day. Furthermore, the uncertainty surrounding the next round of US-Iran negotiations benefits the USD’s reserve currency status and exerts additional pressure on the commodity.
The US central bank decided to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged in its current 3.5% to 3.75% target range at the end of the first meeting under the new Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh. However, the so-called dot plot indicated that nine of the Fed’s 19 committed members believed that they would need to raise the policy rate this year if inflation remains sticky. Furthermore, Kevin Warsh’s comments during the post-meeting press conference focused strongly on price stability, suggesting that the Fed might not rush to cut interest rates even in the face of declining growth.
According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, traders are now pricing in a 70% chance that the US central bank will hike rates in September. This keeps US Treasury bond yields elevated and continues to support the buck. Meanwhile, the optimism led by an interim US-Iran peace deal fades as key issues between the two countries remain unresolved. Moreover, US Vice President JD Vance canceled his planned trip for talks with Iran in Switzerland, saying that the meeting wasn’t yet finalized. Adding to this, Israeli air strikes in Lebanon threaten to unravel the US-Iran deal.
Any signs of renewed escalation of tensions in the Middle East and the lack of progress in US-Iran negotiations could further boost the safe-haven USD. Meanwhile, the liquidity is likely to remain low amid a US bank holiday in observance of Juneteenth National Independence Day. Nevertheless, the Gold seems poised to register losses for the third straight week as the market focus remains glued to further developments surrounding the Middle East crisis.
XAU/USD daily chart
Gold seems vulnerable while below 200-day EMA hurdle near $4,365 zone
From a technical perspective, this week’s repeated failures to breakout through the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) and the subsequent slide favor the XAU/USD bears. Adding to this, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovers near 36, reflecting weak demand rather than outright oversold conditions. Furthermore, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator stays in negative territory with the line below its signal and a subdued histogram, which suggests ongoing downside pressure.
Meanwhile, the 200-day EMA at $4,358.53 is the first meaningful resistance, and bulls would need a daily close above this level to ease the current downside bias and hint at a more sustained recovery phase. Until then, the XAU/USD pair remains vulnerable to further declines, and further fresh selling is likely to be driven by momentum rather than by interaction with a specific technical floor on the daily chart.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
Fed FAQs
Monetary policy in the US is shaped by the Federal Reserve (Fed). The Fed has two mandates: to achieve price stability and foster full employment. Its primary tool to achieve these goals is by adjusting interest rates.
When prices are rising too quickly and inflation is above the Fed’s 2% target, it raises interest rates, increasing borrowing costs throughout the economy. This results in a stronger US Dollar (USD) as it makes the US a more attractive place for international investors to park their money.
When inflation falls below 2% or the Unemployment Rate is too high, the Fed may lower interest rates to encourage borrowing, which weighs on the Greenback.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) holds eight policy meetings a year, where the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) assesses economic conditions and makes monetary policy decisions.
The FOMC is attended by twelve Fed officials – the seven members of the Board of Governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four of the remaining eleven regional Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis.
In extreme situations, the Federal Reserve may resort to a policy named Quantitative Easing (QE). QE is the process by which the Fed substantially increases the flow of credit in a stuck financial system.
It is a non-standard policy measure used during crises or when inflation is extremely low. It was the Fed’s weapon of choice during the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. It involves the Fed printing more Dollars and using them to buy high grade bonds from financial institutions. QE usually weakens the US Dollar.
Quantitative tightening (QT) is the reverse process of QE, whereby the Federal Reserve stops buying bonds from financial institutions and does not reinvest the principal from the bonds it holds maturing, to purchase new bonds. It is usually positive for the value of the US Dollar.
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