The drop was the highest in the last six weeks and occurred against the background of a sharp increase in the yield of the US dollar and Treasury bonds after data indicating a strengthening of retail sales last month. The US government also said on Thursday that over the past week, the number of initial applications for unemployment benefits in the US increased from 20,000 to 332,000. Retail sales rose 0.7% last month, although economists had forecast a 0.7% drop. In addition, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's business activity index rose to 30.7 points in September from 19.4 in August, breaking a four-month series of falls. Precious metals prices will be volatile in the near future, as investors are waiting for clarity from the Fed next week on plans to reduce bond purchases that provided liquidity to markets during the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Traders will also be watching for signals regarding the timing of a possible increase in interest rates. Given the Fed's desire to reduce asset purchases, gold has room for further falls in the coming days, and there is no positive catalyst in the short term yet.
The forecast assumes a reversal and a corrective recovery of the gold price to the resistance levels of 1760, 1765 and 1775 dollars per ounce.