FUNDAMENTALOVERVIEWGold plunged yesterdayafter breaking out of its recent consolidation range. The move gained momentumfollowing news of an Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field. In the daysleading up to this, Iran had warned it would respond if its energy infrastructurewere targeted.The attack marked a clearescalation for markets and triggered the familiar reaction we’ve seen since thestart of the conflict: gold, stocks, and bonds moved lower, while the US dollarand oil rallied.Shortly after, gold facedanother headwind when US PPI data came in much stronger than expected,prompting a more hawkish repricing of interest rate expectations. Prices fellto new lows before consolidating ahead of the FOMC decision.However, the selloffresumed after the Fed. While policymakers left rates unchanged as expected, FedChair Powell struck a more hawkish tone. He emphasized inflation risks, noteddiscussions around two-sided risks to rates, and even acknowledged that thepossibility of the next move being a rate hike did come up.For now, tighter financialconditions and the hawkish repricing are weighing on gold. This pressure islikely to persist unless we see a clear de-escalation in tensions between the USand Iran.GOLD TECHNICALANALYSIS – DAILY TIMEFRAMEOn the daily chart, we cansee that gold eventually broke out of the consolidation above the 5,000 leveland it’s now approaching the major trendline around the 4,650 level. This iswhere we can expect the buyers to step in with a defined risk below thetrendline to position for a rally into new all-time highs. The sellers, on theother hand, will look for a break lower to increase the bearish bets into the4,400 level next. GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS – 4HOUR TIMEFRAMEOn the 4 hour chart, we cansee that the price has been consolidating around the 5,000 support in the pastcouple of days and as soon as the price broke through the recent lows, thebearish momentum increased as more sellers pile in. If we get a pullback fromthe major upward trendline, we can expect the sellers to lean on the downwardtrendline with a defined risk above it to position for a drop back into themajor trendline targeting a breakout. The buyers, on the other hand, will lookfor a break higher to increase the bullish bets into new highs. GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS – 1HOUR TIMEFRAMEOn the 1 hour chart, we havea minor downward trendline defining the bearish momentum on this timeframe. Ifwe get a pullback, we can expect the sellers to lean on the trendline with adefined risk above it to keep pushing into new lows, while the buyers will lookfor a break higher to increase the bullish bets into the next trendline. Thered lines define the average daily range for today. UPCOMING CATALYSTSToday we get the latest US Jobless Claims figures. The focus remains on theUS-Iran war, so keep an eye on the headlines. This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.