Gold fails below channel resistance, off 4% from January high; US jobs data awaited

Gold had rallied more than 15% from last year's low, when it traded at a five-month high in January 2015, but it has pared a portion of the gains of late, keeping the broad downward trend since 2011 intact.

The yellow metal has failed to break above the channel resistance near $1300 and is now off 4% from the January peak of $1307.

Only a significant break, through the $1300-mark, will strengthen the short term uptrend since November last year and it has to pass through $1345 and then $1392 to claim higher levels past $1500 and $1600.

Otherwise, the metal has more chances on the downside and the immediate supports will be $1200 and then $1131, which was the November low. A break of that will open doors to $1000, even though $1043 will be a level to watch ahead of that.

On the monthly chart, gold is holding below the 14-period as well as 50-period moving averages showing the downside bias. Also, the 50-period one has turned south recently indicating weaker momentum for longer term.

Fundamentally, the dollar strength is a factor weighing on the yellow metal though the USD index has come off the 12-year high it touched a few weeks ago.

The dollar index dropped to 93.92 on Thursday from the previous close of 94.38, and compared to the multi-year high of 95.47 traded on 23 January. The market is now waiting for the US jobs data on Friday.

The market consensus is for the non-farm job addition to decrease to 234,000 for January from 252,000 in December while the unemployment rate to stay at 5.6%.