• Gold price begins week’s trading with minor gains after mildly offered weekly closing.
• Firmer United States statistics, US Treasury bond yields help Federal Reserve hawks and weigh on Gold price.
• US-China tension contrast with cautious economic optimism to challenge XAU/USD bears.
• US Consumer Price Index, China-linked headlines will be crucial to convince Gold sellers.

Gold price (XAU/USD) kick-start the key week with mild gains around $1,865 as traders braces for the key United States inflation data. Even if the yellow metal is up 0.09% intraday at the latest, the XAU/USD bears remain hopeful as the latest lot of the US statistics have been impressively favoring the hawkish Federal Reserve (Fed) officials. Also favoring the Gold bears are the US-China tension and the firmer US Treasury bond yields, not to forget the US Dollar rebound.

Upbeat United States economics lure Gold bears

Having witnessed a retreat in the US Dollar during the last 2022’s, the return of strong United States data teases the Gold sellers as markets prepare for the key US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for January.

On Friday, the preliminary readings of the US University of Michigan (UoM) Consumer Sentiment for February rose to 66.4 versus 65.0 expected and 64.9 prior. Further, the UoM noted that the year-ahead inflation expectations rebounded to 4.2% this month, from 3.9% in January and 4.4% in December.  “Long-run inflation expectations (5-year) remained at 2.9% for the third straight month and stayed within the narrow 2.9-3.1% range for 18 of the last 19 months,” Stated UoM.

It’s worth noting that the key US sentiment gauge jumped to the highest in over a year and has a likely strong positive impact on the US inflation data, which in turn can weigh on the Gold price, as the trends between the confidence and spending are closely related.