Gold price remained on the back foot on Wednesday, contemplating the next move ahead of a bunch of critical US data releases. Gold in the international market was available at $1,788.50 per ounce after shedding $2.20 at 1210 hours GMT. Meanwhile, the price of 10 grams of yellow metal in Pakistan remained unchanged at Rs100,700. Gold in the local market was available at Rs103,700 per 10 grams on Tuesday last. According to experts, concerns over the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Europe and the re-imposition of lockdown measures turned out to be a key factor that extended some support to the safe-haven gold. Apart from this, retreating US Treasury bond yields further benefited the non-yielding yellow metal, though a stronger US dollar kept a lid on any further gains. They said that gold bears are taking a breather, as FOMC minutes may shed fresh insights on the Federal Reserves’ rate hike outlook, in the wake of the rising inflationary pressures and robust economic recovery. Ahead of the FOMC minutes, the US PCE inflation, GDP and durable good data will influence the dollar and gold valuations as well, they added. From a technical view, any subsequent fall below the current mark will suggest that gold has topped out in the near term and pave the way for a slide to the next relevant support at $1,769, which is the November 4 low. The next level of support lies near $1,763 and the $1,750 psychological level is the next support level. On the flip side, rising trendline resistance at $1,798 will cap the recovery attempts. Acceptance above the latter will invalidate the bearish formation, opening doors for a retest of the horizontal 200-Simple Moving Average (SMA) at $1,806.