Where Did You Gold? - XAU/USD defends $1730 despite surging Treasury yields

• Gold attempts a tepid bounce above $1730 after a knee-jerk slide.
• A sudden upsurge in the Treasury yields tempered gold’s upside.
• XAU/USD holds onto 100-HMA ahead of the US economic data.

Gold (XAU/USD) is making minor recovery attempts above $1730 following a $20 slide in early European trading.

Ahead of the European open, the US Treasury yields witnessed a sudden spike, with the benchmark 10-year rates hitting the highest levels since January 2020 at 1.74%.

The US bond yields rallied hard on expectations of a sharp improvement in the economic data, as the Fed is unlikely to embark upon the tightening path unless they see some progress on the employment and inflation front.

Investors now await the Bank of England’s (BOE) monetary policy decision and the US weekly jobless claims data for a fresh trading impetus in the prices.

From a near-term technical perspective, gold buyers failed to find acceptance above the $1750 level once again, which triggered a sharp sell-off.

The bears took out the bullish 21-hourly moving average (HMA) support at $1742 while the 50-HMA cushion also got tested at $1737.

At the time of writing, gold bulls are looking to find a strong foothold above the latter, in order to extend the recovery momentum towards the 21-HMA support-turned-resistance.

Above that level, the $1750 level would once again test the bullish commitments.

However, the hourly Relative Strength Index (RSI) has edged higher but remains below the midline, suggesting that any recovery attempts could likely be shallow.

To the downside, if the 50-SMA support is breached on a sustained basis, the upward-sloping 100-SMA support at $1730 could be put at risk.

Further south, Wednesday’s low of $1724 could help limit the declines in gold.

Gold Price Chart: Hourly

Source: FXSTREET