Gold aims for 100-day SMA as growing pessimism favors safe-havens

• Risk aversion dominates amid growing political and trade pessimism.
• The economic calendar can offer additional information for decision making.

With the global trade and political news headlines portraying murkier future ahead, gold prices extend previous run up towards 100-day SMA while trading near $1292 ahead of the European open on Friday.

Other than Iran-Iraq crisis, the US President Donald Trump’s additional contribution to the macro trade protectionism, via Mexican tariffs, also pushed investors towards risk safety.

Also, disappointing prints of China’s official purchasing manager indices (PMIs) and the Huawei’s expatriation of the US workers worsened the risk sentiment further.

Global risk barometer, 10-year treasury yields from the US, dropped further beneath September 2017 low to 2.182% by the press time.

In addition to the macro news, second-tier economic data from the US can also offer fresh impulse to traders.

Technical Analysis

A 100-day simple moving average (SMA), at $1297 now, gains immediate attention from buyers, a break of which can further propel the upside in the direction to $1303 and April month tops near $1311.

Meanwhile, 50-day SMA level near $1287 acts as adjacent support ahead of highlighting $1275, April bottom near $1265 and 200-day SMA level of $1261.