Gold prices weakened slightly during Thursday's Asian trading session, briefly falling to around $4,450 per ounce. Earlier, gold prices had surged on safe-haven demand, reaching new highs, but the significant short-term gains prompted some traders to take profits, temporarily slowing the upward momentum.

From a market sentiment perspective, investors' concerns about geopolitical situations have eased somewhat, and risk appetite has shown marginal improvement, which has temporarily weakened safe-haven buying of gold.

Meanwhile, the market has begun to adopt a wait-and-see approach, awaiting a flurry of key US macroeconomic data releases this week. David Meger, head of metals trading at High Ridge Futures, stated that the current pullback in gold prices reflects more of a normal profit-taking after the previous sharp rise than a trend reversal.

On the data front, the US will release its initial jobless claims for the week on Thursday, while the December non-farm payrolls report, to be released on Friday, will be the core focus of the market.

Market consensus suggests that the U.S. added approximately 60,000 jobs in December, with the unemployment rate potentially falling slightly to 4.5%. These figures will provide crucial clues for assessing the resilience of the U.S. economy and the future path of the Federal Reserve's interest rates.

If employment data falls short of expectations, it could strengthen market bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut this year, thereby lowering real interest rates and reducing the opportunity cost of holding gold, a non-interest-bearing asset, thus supporting gold prices. Conversely, if the data shows strong resilience, gold prices may continue to be under pressure and consolidate in the short term.

From a daily chart perspective, after a rapid rise, gold prices have temporarily moved away from the short-term moving average deviation zone and are currently retracing to a high-level consolidation range. The overall trend remains upward, with prices trading above major medium-term moving averages, indicating that the bullish structure has not been broken.

In terms of technical indicators, the RSI has retreated from its high but remains above 50, indicating that momentum has cooled somewhat but has not turned bearish. If gold prices can stabilize above $4,400, they still have the potential to retest previous highs; however, if this support area is breached, a further pullback to the previous consolidation platform cannot be ruled out.

Editor's Note:

Overall, the current pullback in gold prices is more likely a temporary correction after a period of upward movement than a signal of a trend reversal. With global monetary policy entering a sensitive period, US employment data will be a key variable influencing the short-term direction of gold prices.

As long as market expectations for interest rate cuts persist, gold's medium-term investment value will remain supported. However, short-term volatility may increase significantly with the release of macroeconomic data, and the risk of high-level fluctuations should be noted.