Despite growing hawkish Fed bets, XAU/USD remains steady near $1,880

Despite rising predictions on the Federal Reserve (Fed) taking an extreme hawkish posture this week, gold price (XAU/USD) is bouncing in a small range of $1,868.92-1,879.25 in the early Asian session. Following the announcement of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Friday, the precious metal made a massive upward surge. The shiny metal quickly climbed from $1,828.99 to $1,879.25.

The US CPI was reported at 8.6 percent by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, significantly higher than the previous print and estimates of 8.3 percent. In addition, the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased to 6% from 5.9% expected. It’s worth emphasizing that the food and oil processes play a far larger role in exacerbating the inflation problem. In terms of percent-wise rise, the core CPI, which excludes oil and food, has jumped lower than the plain-vanilla CPI. The Federal Reserve (Fed) is expected to announce a rate hike on Wednesday, based on higher-than-expected US inflation and better-than-expected US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFPs).

On a four-hour period, the gold price is about to break out to the upside of its long-term consolidation in the $1,825.10-1,876.01 area. The bullish momentum has been bolstered by a more responsive buying action reported last week from $1,825.10. From the 50-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) of $1,853.15, the precious metal is auctioning upward. In the meantime, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) (14) has moved into a bullish area of 60.00-80.00, adding to the upside filters.