FUNDAMENTALOVERVIEWGold has been consolidatingsince Thursday’s selloff when Trump disappointed the market in his address tothe nation by maintaining the hawkish stance towards Iran and reiterating the 2–3week timeline for ending the war.We haven’t got anymeaningful development in the meantime, although Trump set a “final” deadlinefor Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz which expires today at 8 pm ET. Hethreatened to demolish and take Iran out in “one night” if no deal is reachedbefore the deadline. This has been keeping themarkets on the defensive and led to rangebound price action pretty much acrossthe board. Looking ahead, gold’s fate depends on the US-Iran war because of itslink with financial conditions.For now, the bearish biasremains intact, and we could see gold falling into the 4,000 level if theconflict drags on. An escalation will likely put much more downward pressure onprices, while a de-escalation should trigger another relief rally and take ustowards the 5,000 handle. GOLD TECHNICALANALYSIS – DAILY TIMEFRAMEOn the daily chart, we cansee that gold is consolidating around the downward trendline. This is where thesellers are stepping in with a defined risk above the trendline to position fora drop into the major trendline around the 4,000 level. The buyers, on theother hand, will look for a break to pile in for a rally into the 5,000 levelnext.GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS – 4HOUR TIMEFRAMEOn the 4 hour chart, we cansee the price broke below the upward trendline that was defining the pullbackinto the major downward trendline. The sellers will likely continue to pile inaround these levels with a defined risk above the downward trendline, while thebuyers will look for a break higher to open the door for new highs.GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS – 1HOUR TIMEFRAMEOn the 1 hour chart, we cansee more clearly the rangebound price action around the downward trendline.This pullback might be forming a triple top or a head and shoulders patternwith the neckline around the 4,620 level. If we get a break lower, we canexpect the sellers to increase the bearish bets into new lows. The red linesdefine the average daily range for today. UPCOMING CATALYSTSOn Wednesday we have the FOMC minutes. On Thursday, we get the USPCE price index and the latest US Jobless Claims figures. On Friday, weconclude the week with the US CPI report and the University of MichiganConsumer Sentiment survey. It goes without saying that the focus remains on theUS-Iran headlines, so keep an eye out for any new development. This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.