Gold Price News: Gold In No-Man’s Land As US Data Meets Expectations

Gold prices were range bound on Tuesday, showing little convincing movement in either direction.

Prices moved in a range of $2,320 to $2,337 an ounce on Tuesday, little changed from Monday’s range of $2,320 to $2,338.

Figures released on Tuesday showed that annual Euro Area inflation came in at 2.5% in June, in line with market expectations. The figures underline the ECB’s decision to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in June for the first time in eight years, and following several rate hikes that began in July 2021, which have helped to control rising inflation.

Meanwhile, the US JOLTs job openings figures also released Tuesday showed that the number of job openings in America rose by 221,000 to 8.14 million in May, slightly ahead of market expectations of 7.91 million.

Gold prices have been struggling to gain new ground since setting highs of over $2,450 an ounce on May 20, with short-term peaks coming in at successively lower levels since then. Nevertheless, gold has certainly shown no appetite for a major sell-off, with prices meeting strong buying interest at around $2,300 an ounce three times over the last two months.

Open interest on gold futures on exchanges declined in the week to June 28, according to recent World Gold Council figures.

The overall drop was largely a result of a fall in open interest on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which fell to $26.7 billion from $31.1 billion the previous week. Open interest on Comex was barely changed at $105 billion compared with $105.1 billion the previous week, the figures showed.

The World Gold Council issued its Mid-Year Outlook on Tuesday, stating that gold prices are likely to stay range bound for the remainder of 2024 after gaining strong momentum in H1.

However, it cautioned that gold prices could push higher still if western demand is triggered by three key elements: interest rate cuts, recession risks and geopolitics.

Looking ahead, upcoming data releases include the US ISM Services PMI on Wednesday, and Friday’s monthly US Non-Farm Payrolls and the unemployment rate for June.