Gold at 7-month low, hanging on to the ropes of $1,800 support

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Investing.com - The world’s supposedly preferred “safe-haven” is not being treated as such as the global economy shudders from the possibility of more inflationary and rate hike pain.

Gold sank to a 7-month low on Monday, hanging on to the ropes of $1,800 support, as the dollar hit 10-month highs instead, indicating the rush of investors towards the U.S. currency which has taken on the mantle of stability to currencies in other challenged global economies.

Gold’s most-active futures contract on New York’s Comex, December, settled at $1,847.20. an ounce, down $18.90, or 1% on the day. The benchmark for U.S. gold futures tumbled 4% last week for its biggest weekly decline since a near 6% plunge during the week to June 11, 2021. Comex gold also wrapped the third quarter down 3% after a 4% drop in the second quarter.

The spot price of gold, more closely watched by some traders than futures, was at $1,831.93 by 14:10 ET (18:10 GMT), down $16.80, or 0.9%. The session low was $1,827.26 — the lowest since the 1,809.40 trough hit in March.

“As the Dollar Index continues to go parabolic, spit gold fails to find any bounce back and keeps on making lower lows with another $21 intraday drop from $1848 to $1827,” noted Sunil Kumar Dixit, chief technical strategist at SKCharting.com.

“The next projected support for spot gold is between $1,815 to $1,808. Bearish pressure can take a break if a bounce back resumes clearing through initial resistance $1,850-$1,860.”

New round of inflation, rate hike fears

The dollar shot up on Tuesday as a number of policy-makers at the Federal Reserve hinted on Tuesday at another rate hike in either November or December to keep headline inflation under control and nearer to the central bank’s 2% per annum target from a current 3.7%.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said she remains willing to support another increase in the central bank's policy interest rate at a future meeting if incoming data shows progress on inflation is stalling or proceeding too slowly.

Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, said ​​the central bank will likely “need to keep rates up for some time”.

While inflation has cooled markedly from the four-decade highs of more than 9% per annum that it stood at in June 2022, a runaway rally in oil in recent months has raised concerns that non-oil producing countries — which make up the bulk of the world economy — will face an onerous burden again as the year ends.