After closing the last week on a negative note at $1,785.10 per ounce in the international market, with a loss of $7.90 (-0.44 percent) on a week-on-week basis, gold is expected to remain slightly bullish in the near term. Similarly, the price of gold decreased by 1.79 percent in Pakistan during the last week. The price of 10 grams of yellow metal in Pakistan was Rs100,500 at the opening of the last week and it decreased to Rs98,700 to close the week. The difference in depreciation in gold price in the local and international markets was due to appreciation of the local currency, which appreciated by 1.35 percent against the US dollar during the week, with the dollar opening at Rs174 on Monday last and closing at Rs171.65 on Friday last. According to experts, improvement in the rupee drove the gold price down. They said that weakening of the dollar and the drop in the international bullion market had a dual impact on the gold price in Pakistan. They stated that the drop in gold price came in reaction to the facilities offered by Saudi Arabia. From a technical outlook, with Friday’s sharp decline, gold fell below the 200-day, 100-day and 50-day simple moving averages (SMAs). Moreover, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator on the daily chart retreated below 50, suggesting that bearish momentum is picking up steam. Gold seems to have broken below the ascending trend line that has been acting as support since the beginning of October. The support of gold is located at $1,770 ahead of $1,750. A daily close below the latter could open the door for additional losses toward $1,730. On the flip side, strong resistance seems to have formed at $1,790 (100-day and 200-day SMAs) before psychological levels of $1,800 and $1,810 (static level). The weekly price action showed that $1,810 is a key hurdle and the near-term technical outlook could turn bullish if buyers manage to lift gold above that level. During this week, if US policy-makers decide to go ahead with the taper in November and adopt a hawkish tone, the dollar could outperform its rivals and gold’s near-term outlook could turn bearish. It will be interesting to see if the US Federal Reserves will remain focused on the inflation outlook rather than the loss of growth momentum in the third quarter. In case the FED downplays inflation concerns and sounds concerned about the Q3 GDP data, the dollar could come under renewed selling pressure and allow gold to turn north. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics will release the October jobs report. The market consensus points to an increase of 425,000 in Nonfarm Payrolls following the disappointing print of 194,000 in September. A strong NFP figure could support the dollar and vice versa. It is pertinent to mention here that TLTP Research Wing predicted on October 24 that gold was expected to reclaim $1,800 mark in the short-term and might cross the $1,813 mark.