• Gold witnesses some selling on Friday and snaps a three-day winning streak to a one-week high.
• Hawkish Fed expectations help revive the USD demand and exerted pressure on the commodity.
• Investors now eye the US PCE data for some impetus ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s appearance.

Gold comes under some selling pressure on Friday and snaps a three-day winning streak to the $1,765 area, or a one-week high touched the previous day. The XAU/USD remains depressed through the early European session and is currently placed near the daily low, just below the $1,755 level.

The US dollar regains some positive traction and recovers further from the weekly low, which turns out to be a key factor exerting 
downward pressure on the dollar-denominated gold. The resilient USD continues to draw support from growing acceptance that the US central bank will stick to its policy-tightening path. The bets were reaffirmed by better-than-expected US macro data and hawkish remarks by Fed officials on Thursday.

In fact, St. Louis Fed chief James Bullard stressed the need to keep raising interest rates. Adding to this, Kansas City Fed President Esther George said the Fed hasn’t yet raised rates to levels that weigh on the economy and may have to take them above 4% for a time. This, in turn, lifted bets for a supersized 75 bps rate hike, which remains supportive of elevated US bond yields and offers additional support to the greenback.

Policymakers, however, reserved their judgment on the size of the rate increase at the next FOMC policy meeting in September. Hence, the focus remains glued to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's appearance at the Jackson Hole Symposium. Investors will look for clues about the possibility of more aggressive rate hikes, which will drive the USD demand and help determine the next leg of a directional move for the non-yielding gold.

Heading into the key event risk, traders on Friday might take cues from the release of the US Core PCE Price Index, due later during the early North American session. The data could influence gold, which is traditionally seen as a hedge against inflation. The immediate market reaction, however, is more likely to remain short-lived. In the meantime, the prevalent cautious mood could lend support to the safe-haven precious metal.

Technical levels to watch