Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD hovers around $1,900 as Russia-linked woes escalate

Gold prices struggle for clear direction after stepping back from eight-month high.

Technical resistance join indecision over Russian invasion of Ukraine, Feds next action to restrict immediate moves.

US turns down Blinken-Lavrov meeting, Biden-Putin summit as the West sanctions Moscow.

Gold Price Forecast: Ukraine in the eye of the storm, fears boost safe-haven assets

The yellow metal‘s recent inaction could be linked to the absence of Japanese traders, which indirectly affects US bond demand in Asia and restricts catalysts for gold. Also testing the gold traders are recently mixed concerns over the Fed’s next performance and cautious mood over Russia-Ukraine conditions as the West gets aggressive in sanctioning Moscow.

Recently receding odds of a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine tussles offered the latest blow to the market‘s risk appetite, as well as favor gold buyers, as the US ruled out the scope of a summit between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. On the same line were comments from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s rejection of the need for Thursdays meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

On the contrary, US President Bidens comments like, “We have no intention of fighting Russia,” seem to have played the role of turning down the fears of a full-fledged war between the West and Moscow.

Elsewhere, Dr. Raphael W. Bostic, Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said, “Fed is going to ”let the data guide us“ in upcoming decisions.” The policymaker‘s comments were in line with Monday’s statements from Federal Reserve Board Governor Michelle Bowman who mentioned, “It is too soon to tell if the Fed should hike 25 or 50bps in March.”

Against this backdrop, S&P 500 Futures consolidate recent losses with 0.5% intraday gains while the US Treasury yields remain inactive at around 1.94% after rising around 2.0% daily in the previous day.

Moving on, Fedspeak and geopolitical can keep the drivers seat but the sluggish markets may allow gold to pare some of the latest gains.

Technical analysis

Overbought RSI joined a 17-month-old resistance line to trigger golds pullback from multi-day high on Tuesday.

Even so, the metal remains above November 2021 peak, as well as backed by a 13-day-old support line near $1,877, which in turn keeps gold buyers hopeful of overcoming the immediate hurdle surrounding $1,910. Also acting as an upside filter is November 2021 top surrounding $1,917.

Gold: Daily chart