Gold looks to close week flat below $1560
- Wall Street erases early gains after opening at record highs.
- US Dollar Index climbs to fresh multi-week highs.
- Consumer Confidence in US deteriorates slightly in January.
The XAU/USD pair climbed to a fresh daily high of $1560 in the early trading hours of the American session but struggled to preserve its momentum. As of writing, the pair was trading at $1556.85, adding 0.28% on a daily basis and looking to close the week flat.
USD looks to end the week on a strong note
The broad-based USD strength and the upbeat market mood on Friday keep the pair's upside limited. The data from the US showed that Housing Starts advanced to its highest reading in 13 years by rising 16.9% in December to help the USD outperform its rivals in the second half of the day.
Although the Federal Reserve announced that Industrial Production in US contracted by 0.3% in December, a surprise 0.2% increase in Manufacturing Production offset the negative impact of the uninspiring data. Finally, the Univesity of Michigan's Consumer Confidence Index edged lower to 99.1 in January (preliminary) from 99.2.
The US Dollar Index gained traction and rose to its highest level since the post-Christmas slump at 97.66. As of writing, the index was up 0.3% on the day at 97.60.
Meanwhile, Wall Street's main indexes opened at fresh record highs on Friday but retraced early gains to turn flat on the day and the 10-year US Treasury bond yield retreated from daily highs to suggest that risk sentiment is turning neutral ahead of the weekend.
Technical levels to watch for