The bears took control yesterday, pressuring gold back down into the down trend channel and breaking $1250. Gold is now trading at the bottom boundary of the short term uptrend channel and is in danger of breaking down and declining back towards $1180.
The dollar surged yesterday, bouyed by the continued tapering of Quantitative Easing to reclaim the key 81 level. If the dollar can this time hold 81 and move higher, gold will be in serious trouble.
The equity markets remain weak, supporting gold to some extent, with further weakness in equities required for the recent rally in gold to resume and move forward.
Support can be found at $1237-$1240, $1220-$1225, $1210, $1200, $1188-$1190 and $1180. A break of $1180 would have serious bearish implications for gold and suggest a decline to $1000-$1050 in the short term.
Resistance can be found at $1250-$1255, $1268-$1272, $1277-$1280 and $1291-$1295. Holding support at $1250 and a subsequent break above $1279 would suggest an end to the intermediate term down trend, though it would take a close above $1300 to confirm a more significant rally was developing.