• Gold Price prods crucial support confluence as US Dollar, yields cheer hawkish Fed bias.
• FOMC met expectations of holding rates unchanged but dot plot, Powell’s Speech weighs on XAU/USD price.
• Downbeat China data adds strength to bearish bias but $1,930, US data holds the key to further Gold Price weakness.

Gold Price (XAU/USD) drops to a three-month low as market players seek solace in the Fed’s hawkish hold, as well as downbeat China data, during the bumper week. That said, the US central bank kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5.0-5.25%, matching market expectations of pausing the multi-month-old hawkish cycle after 10 consecutive rate increases. However, the upbeat FOMC Economic Projections and Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech renewed the hawkish Fed bias surrounding the July meeting and weighed on the XAU/USD afterward.

Elsewhere, downbeat prints of China Retail Sales and Industrial Production join firmer US Treasury bond yields to also keep the Gold bears hopeful. However, the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) rate cut and the Fed’s emphasis on incoming data for decision-making keeps the XAU/USD sellers skeptical.

Hence, today’s Retail Sales for May and other mid-tier activity data, as well as the weekly Jobless Claims, will be important to watch. Additionally, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy meeting results will be eyed too as it can be directly linked to the US Dollar and the Gold Price