GOLD PRICE CONSOLIDATES IN A MULTI-DAY-OLD TRADING RANGE, HOLDS ABOVE $2,150 LEVEL

• Gold price struggles for a firm direction amid the uncertainty over the Fed’s rate-cut path.
• Geopolitical risk, along with the risk-off impulse, lends support to the safe-haven XAU/USD.
• Traders look to the US macro data for some impetus ahead of next week’s FOMC meeting.

Gold price (XAU/USD) came under some renewed selling pressure on Thursday and dropped back closer to the weekly low in reaction to the hotter-than-expected US Producer Price Index (PPI). The data pointed to still-stick inflation and cooled market expectations for early interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve (Fed). This, in turn, triggered a fresh leg up in the US Treasury bond yields and boosted the US Dollar (USD), which turned out to be a key factor driving flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal.

The markets, however, are still pricing in a greater chance that the US central bank will start cutting interest rates in June. This, along with the risk-off impulse, assisted the Gold price to attract some buyers ahead of the $2,150 level and trade with a mild positive bias during the Asian session on Friday. The XAU/USD, however, remains confined in a familiar range as traders seek more clarity about the Fed's rate-cut path before placing fresh directional bets. Hence, the focus remains on the FOMC meeting next week.