EB SECURITIES noted that since August of last year, despite several minor pullbacks, the price of gold has consistently held above its 50-day moving average. The firm believes that spot gold has found support around $4,402 per ounce. Over the past two weeks, the technical pattern for spot gold has shown an upward trend, with the recent rebound reaching a high near $5,092 per ounce. In the short term, attention should be paid to whether gold can break above this level. A successful breakthrough above $5,092 per ounce would lead the firm to set a new full-year price target for gold in 2026.

The report highlighted that U.S. non-farm payrolls recorded their largest increase in over a year, with January figures rising by 130,000, significantly surpassing market expectations. The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 4.3%, compared to a market consensus of 4.4%. Despite the strong jobs data indicating a robust U.S. labor market, a Federal Reserve governor emphasized that there are still multiple reasons supporting interest rate cuts. However, the President of the Kansas City Fed expressed concerns about excessively high inflation and suggested that the federal funds rate should remain at a "moderately restrictive" level. The President of the Cleveland Fed indicated that the Federal Open Market Committee may need to keep interest rates unchanged for a considerable period.

Traders subsequently lowered their expectations for the Fed to begin cutting rates this year, causing the U.S. dollar index to consolidate around the 96.9 level. Additionally, spot gold surged to $5,595.46 per ounce at the end of January, reaching the firm's first-half target of $4,950 per ounce. However, due to the rapid ascent, spot gold experienced a significant pullback over three trading sessions, briefly falling to a low of $4,402.97 per ounce before staging a technical rebound. At the time of writing, gold was trading around $5,061 per ounce, consolidating. From a technical perspective, the daily chart for spot gold shows strong support at the 50-day moving average.