FUNDAMENTALOVERVIEWGold is again on the backfoot as yet another rally on optimism gets faded. Tonight,Iran's IRGC launched a wave of ballistic missile attacks targeting US militarybases across the Gulf, including an Air Base in Kuwait. Iranian officialsdescribed the strikes as retaliation for US actions against an oil tanker nearthe Strait of Hormuz and military operations on Qeshm Island.Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also reported attacks atmultiple facilities hosting US personnel. According to US Central Command,American forces conducted "self-defense" operations, includingstrikes on targets on Qeshm Island in response to attempted attacks by Iran.The ceasefire continues to look weaker by the day but a full resumption ofthe conflict seems unlikely. The negotiating deadlock has been dragging on fora long time and oil prices are likely to remain persistently elevated until theStrait of Hormuz is reopened.This keeps increasing the risk of a hawkish Fed. More and more policymakersare now pushing for dropping the easing bias, so we can expect that to happenat the upcoming FOMC meeting. Moreover, if nothing changes on the Strait ofHormuz side before then, we might get a hawkish surprise as inflation continuesto run hot and the US data remains resilient. In the short-term, a resolution and the reopening of the Strait will likelysupport gold on falling oil prices and increased rate cut bets. But if theStrait remains closed for longer and oil prices stay elevated, the risk of theFed being forced to hike anyway increases, and that’s going to keep weighing ongold.GOLD TECHNICALANALYSIS – DAILY TIMEFRAMEOn the daily chart, we cansee that gold is again consolidating as traders await new catalysts to push theprice into either direction. We are trading right in the middle of the two keytrendlines, so there’s not much we can glean from this timeframe. We need tozoom in to see some more details.GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS – 4HOUR TIMEFRAMEOn the 4 hour chart, wehave a key resistance zone around the 4,585 level where the price got rejectedfrom several times. From a risk management perspective, the sellers will have abetter risk to reward setup around the resistance and the downward trendline toposition for a drop into new lows. The buyers, on the other hand, will need theprice to break above the trendline to open the door for a rally into the 4,850level next. GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS – 1HOUR TIMEFRAMEOn the 1 hour chart, we havea minor downward trendline defining the current bearish momentum. The sellerswill likely continue to lean on the trendline to keep pushing into new lows,while the buyers will look for a break higher to extend the pullback into the4,490 zone. If the price pulls back into the zone, we can expect the sellers tostep in there with a defined risk above it to position for a drop into newlows, while the buyers will look for a break to increase the bullish bets intothe 4,585 resistance. The red lines define the average daily range for today. UPCOMING CATALYSTSToday, we have the USADP report and the US ISM Services PMI. Tomorrow, we get the latest US JoblessClaims figures. On Friday, we conclude the week with the US NFP report. This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.