#Gold Technical Analysis# 24K99 News: During Friday's (October 18th) Asian session, spot gold maintained a strong intraday rally, with the price currently near $2710 per ounce; earlier, gold touched $2712.01 per ounce, hitting a new all-time high. Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet, authored an article analyzing the technical outlook for gold.
Bednarik wrote that gold continues to set new highs, indicating the bull market is not over yet. Gold may experience a corrective decline in the next few trading sessions, but buyers may look to buy on dips.
Bloomberg analysis stated that gold broke above $2700 per ounce for the first time, as concerns over escalated Middle East conflict drove investors towards safe-haven assets. Previously, Israel claimed to have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded attacks on southern Israel, sparking a year-long conflict in Gaza.
According to the latest report from Reuters UK on Friday, Hezbollah armed group stated that the war with Israel has entered a new escalation phase. Iran expressed that after the killing of Hamas leader Sinwar, the 'spirit of resistance will be strengthened.'
(Screenshot source: Reuters)
Hezbollah mentioned in a statement: 'The confrontation with the Israeli enemy has entered a new escalation phase, which will be reflected in the events in the coming days.'
Western leaders have stated that Sinwar's death provides an opportunity to end the conflict. However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that the war will continue until the hostages held by Hamas militants are released.
According to Reuters, the Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that Sinwar had been killed by the Israeli military on Wednesday and released a video taken by a drone, showing Sinwar covered in dust sitting on a chair in a destroyed building.
Although Hamas has not made any comments on Sinwar, internal sources say that the signs they have seen indicate that Sinwar has indeed been killed.
In times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, investors typically seek safety in gold.
Niteh Shah, a strategist at WisdomTree, said: "Apart from concerns about the Middle East situation, the upcoming U.S. election is a highly competitive one. This has created a lot of uncertainty, and gold is often the investment choice during uncertain times.
Bednarik pointed out that concerns about the future U.S. government also support the demand for gold. With three weeks to go until the election, opinion polls show that the voting intentions of the two candidates are very close, creating uncertainties.
Short-term technical outlook for gold
Bednarik stated that from a technical perspective, the daily chart of gold shows that the bullish trend is far from over. The price of gold continues to move steadily upwards, with the bullish 20-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) providing support around $2649.50 per ounce, leading the gold price upwards. Meanwhile, the 100-day SMA and 200-day SMA are much lower than the aforementioned shorter-term moving averages, reflecting sustained buying interest. Finally, technical indicators are gaining upward momentum within positive levels, aligning with the view that gold will see another uptrend.
(Spot gold daily chart source: 24K99)
Bednarik added that in the short term, based on the 4-hour chart, the risk of gold price trend is also biased towards the upside. The bullish 20-period SMA extends upward above the 100-period SMA, while the 200-period SMA is moving upward well below these two averages' levels. At the same time, technical indicators are maintained above the midline, although there is no clear direction strength. In the next few trading sessions, gold prices may experience corrective declines. However, there is no sign that buyers are giving up; on the contrary, they may look to buy on dips.
Valeria Bednarik provides the latest key support and resistance levels for gold price:
Support levels: $2685.45 per ounce; $2668.80 per ounce; $2655.65 per ounce
Resistance levels: $2715.00 per ounce; $2740.00 per ounce
At 11:32 Beijing time, spot gold was trading at $2708.83 per ounce.
