Gold Price Forecast: XAU/USD struggles near one-week low, below $1,950 ahead of Powell

• Gold Price is back in the red, as sellers keep lurking just below $1,960.
• An uptick in the US bond yields acted as a headwind for the commodity.
• All eyes remain on Fed Chair Powell’s and US President Biden’s speech.

Gold struggled to capitalize on the previous day's modest rebound from over a one-week low and came under some renewed selling pressure on Thursday. The XAU/USD remained on the defensive through the early European session and was last seen trading just below the $1,950 level.

The mild recovery in the US Treasury yields on increased Fed’s hawkishness is acting as a headwind for spot prices. Gold could see further downside risks in the near term on rising bets for multiple 50 bps Fed rate hikes, which had sent the US 10-year real yields into the positive territory for the first time in two years.

Apart from this, the risk-on impulse - as depicted by a generally positive tone around the equity markets - weighed on traditional safe-haven assets, including gold. That said, the ongoing US dollar retracement slide from its highest level since March 2020 could lend some support to the dollar-denominated commodity.

The main event risk for Gold Price on Thursday remains Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s appearance at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Summit. His comments will hold the key, as they come just before the bank enters its "blackout" period.

Powell may fail to excite the dollar bulls and could emerge as a boon for Gold Price, as he may refrain from hinting at an aggressive tightening outlook after the US core inflation eased a bit in March.

The sentiment on global markets will be also closely followed for its impact on the safe-haven Gold amid uncertainty over the Russia-Ukraine war, concerning inflation levels that threaten the economic recovery worldwide.

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