Gold trades around key support at $1,730

Gold price is struggling to find a way out by surrendering the critical support of $1,730.00 as the US Dollar Index, on Monday, prints a fresh 19-year high at 108.27 on expectations for higher US Inflation.

Gold is also displaying subdued performance and the volatility prior to the release of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expected to drag gold below the critical support of $1,730.00. As per the market consensus, CPI is expected at 8.7% higher than the prior release of 8.6%. The core CPI that excludes food products and oil prices may drop to 5.7% vs. 6% reported earlier.

Increasing expectations for lower corporate earnings have underpinned the risk-off market mood. Gold price has held on below $1,740.00 but is still under pressure. The precious metal is witnessing back-and-forth moves in a range of $1,730.73-1,752.49 from the past three trading sessions.

Durable goods, automobiles, and other commodities will reflect the impact of policy restrictive measures, which have adopted by the Fed earlier. However, the volatile food and fuels are still not responding.

Expectations for one more interest rate hike by the Fed are boosting the case for lower earnings by the corporate. The unavailability of cheap money in the economy has forced the corporate sector to put an extra lens on investment opportunities.

Gold prices are on the verge of giving a downside break of the consolidation formed in a $1,730.73-1,752.49 range. The 20- and 50-period Exponential Moving Averages at $1,737.04 and $1,740.86 respectively have started declining, which adds to the downside filters. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) (14) is looking to surrender the cushion of 40.00 to add volatility to the market conditions.