Gold recovery pauses amid Iran peace doubts and firm US inflation

Gold bears have the upper hand below 50-day SMA and descending channel resistance

The XAU/USD pair showed some resilience below a technically significant 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) on Thursday and staged a goodish recovery from the lower boundary of a short-term descending channel. This keeps the broader uptrend intact, though the lack of follow-through buying warrants some caution for bullish traders.

Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator sits in negative territory and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) around 42 suggests subdued, not yet oversold, downside momentum. Moreover, the precious metal holds well under the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) at $4,627.51 and the descending channel hurdle around $4,667.32, keeping a bearish, capped tone intact.

On the downside, immediate support comes from the longer-term 200-day SMA at $4,405.20, ahead of the channel floor near $4,348.84. A sustained violation of the latter would reinforce the current bearish bias and open the door to a deeper corrective phase.