Gold price attracted some dip buyers, but the upside remained limited.

The gold price (XAUUSD) edged higher in the Asian session on Wednesday, looking to build on the previous day’s rebound from the $2,319-2,318 support zone. However, the commodity trapped in a familiar trading range below the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) crucial resistance. As traders prefer to wait for more clues about the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) policy path before putting new directional bets. Thus, the focus remains on the release.Gold price bulls await move beyond 50-day SMA pivotal resistance ahead of FOMC minutes

The market focus on the release of the FOMC meeting minutes later today.

Hence, the focus remains on the release of the FOMC meeting minutes later today. This, along with the Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report on Friday, might influence expectations about the Fed’s future policy decisions, which will drive the US Dollar (USD) and provide a fresh impetus to the non-yielding yellow metal.

In the meantime, growing acceptance that the Fed is more likely to cut interest rates at the September meeting and again lower borrowing costs in December acts as a tailwind for the Gold price. The bets were reaffirmed by dovish-sounding remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, which, along with a modest downtick in the US Treasury bond yields, keeps the USD bulls on the defensive. Apart from this, concerns over a slowdown in global economic growth, persistent geopolitical tensions, along with political uncertainty in the US and Europe, should lend support to the safe-haven precious metal. Traders now look to the US macro data – the ADP report on private-sector employment and the ISM Services PMI – for some impetus.

Daily Market Movers: Gold price draws some support from September Fed rate cut bets, lacks bullish conviction.

Investors opt to wait on the sidelines and seek more clarity about the Federal Reserve’s rate-cut path, leading to subdued range-bound price action around the Gold price for the fourth straight day on Wednesday.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed satisfaction with the progress on inflation but said that he wants to be more confident that it is moving sustainably down toward 2% before starting the process of reducing rates.
The markets are currently pricing in a greater chance that the Fed will lower borrowing costs in September and the possibility of another rate cut in December, triggering a pullback in the US Treasury bond yields.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year US government bond retreats further from a one-month high touched on Monday, which keeps the US Dollar bulls on the defensive and acts as a tailwind for the commodity.
This overshadowed the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report that showed US job openings rose to 8.140 million on the last day of May from April’s downwardly revised figure of 7.092 million.
Expectations that a Trump presidency would lead to higher tariffs, and government borrowing and be more inflationary than the Biden administration should limit the downside for the US bond yields, in turn, the USD.