In the early Asian session on Monday (December 30), gold opened slightly higher at $2,620.59. The year-end is coming to an end. Although the dollar has continued to strengthen with Trump's re-election, the rise of gold has also begun to weaken in early November. And although the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again in December, due to high inflation, the Federal Reserve has stated that it will reduce the number of interest rate cuts in 2025. The price of gold remains at a high level and fluctuates and adjusts, and there is a risk of turning down. However, according to the current momentum trend, it is highly likely that the brilliant performance in 2024 will be maintained, with a 27% increase.

In addition, the latest employment data in the United States has been mixed. Although the number of first-time unemployment claims has remained stable, the number of continuing unemployment claims has climbed to a one-year high, indicating that the job market may be gradually slowing down. This may indicate that the US labor market is cooling down, which may have an impact on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions in the long run, indirectly benefiting gold. During the day, we will focus on data such as the Chicago PMI in December, the monthly rate of the U.S. existing home sales index in November, and the Dallas Fed business activity index in December.

From the weekly level of spot gold, the fluctuation of gold prices last week was not large. This is because Western countries are on Christmas holiday and there are very few transactions in the entire financial market. Therefore, gold is also mainly volatile. However, it was still supported by geopolitical risk aversion at the end of the week, so a small positive line was recorded. Next week, we still have to focus on the support protection of MA20 and observe the dead cross adjustment of the MACD indicator.

From the daily level of spot gold, although the gold price was close to 2640 last week, it ultimately failed to open up further room for growth. This means that the short-term market trend is still biased towards volatility. At present, the battle between long and short positions has reached a deadlock, and we need to wait for the market to give clearer signals. At this stage, the moving average group is basically parallel, and the MACD indicator is also gradually approaching below the 0 axis. Therefore, it is temporarily recommended to keep selling high and buying low in terms of operation.

Disclaimer: The article is contributed by the market analyst from Bitop market observation team. The content is solely for personal opinions and sharing. The analysis is time-sensitive and provided for reference and discussion only. It does not constitute any investment advice. The market is risky, so investing should be done cautiously.