Gold price (XAU/USD) stages a goodish intraday bounce from a three-week low, around the $2,972-2,971 region, touched during the Asian session on Monday – and spikes to a fresh daily high, around the $3,055 area in the last hour. Data published earlier today showed that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) increased its state Gold reserves for the fifth consecutive month. Adding to this, the prevalent risk-off mood, recession fears, bets that a tariffs-driven US economic slowdown might force the Federal Reserve (Fed) to resume its rate-cutting cycle soon, and geopolitical risks act as a tailwind for the commodity.

The intraday move up, however, fades rather quickly as investors continue to unwind their XAU/USD bullish positions to cover losses from a broader sell-off across the global financial markets. Meanwhile, Friday's stronger-than-expected US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish remarks helped the US Dollar (USD) to hold comfortably above a multi-month low touched last week. This turns out to be another factor capping the gains for the Gold price. That said, dovish Fed expectations keep the USD bulls on the defensive and assist the Gold price to hold above the $3,000 mark.

Gold price draws support from a combination of factors; bulls seem reluctant to place aggressive bets
The widening global trade war continues to fuel concerns about a global economic recession and leads to an extended sell-off in equity markets across the world. This, in turn, prompted traders to liquidate their long positions around the Gold price and raise cash to cover losses elsewhere.
According to data released this Monday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) added gold to its reserves for a fifth consecutive month in March. In fact, the People's Bank of China's holding rose by 0.09 million troy ounces last month amid rising global trade and geopolitical turmoil.

US President Donald Trump imposed reciprocal tariffs of at least 10% on all imported goods late last Wednesday, with China facing 54% levies under this new regime. In response, China's Commerce Ministry announced on Friday that they will levy additional tariffs of 34% on all US imports.
Meanwhile, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed on Sunday that the tariffs would not be postponed and the policy would remain in place for days and weeks. Adding to this, Trump stated that there would be no deal with China unless the trade deficit is solved.

The US Dollar struggles to capitalize on Friday's modest recovery move from a multi-month low that followed the release of the better-than-expected US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report. In fact, the closely-watched jobs data showed that the economy added 228K jobs in March vs. 117K previous.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell said that that inflation is closer to target but still slightly elevated. Powell added that Trump's tariffs could have a strong inflationary impact and that the Fed's job is to avoid temporary price hikes turning into persistent inflation.
Investors, however, are still pricing in the possibility that the US central bank will resume its rate-cutting cycle in June and also lower borrowing costs at least four times this year. This, along with the anti-risk low, keeps the yield on the benchmark 10-year US government bond below the 4.0% mark.

This, in turn, holds back the USD bulls from placing aggressive bets and assists the non-yielding yellow metal to stage a modest intraday bounce from a nearly four-week low touched during the Asian session on Monday. The lack of follow-through, however, warrants caution for bulls.

Source: Fxstreet