Gold Stalls at the Margins as Structure Weakens and Momentum Wanes

After a resurgent rally the week prior, gold entered the final week of May with bullish hopes intact—but left it in retreat, closing the week near $3,295 after a rejection from the $3,340–$3,360 region. The week was marked by directional indecision, fading momentum, and mounting structural vulnerability, with price carving a series of lower highs beneath a descending trendline while struggling to hold key support zones.

The week began with promise. Price briefly reclaimed the $3,340 level in the early sessions, but the move was shallow and quickly unwound. A sharp rejection midweek sent price cascading back toward a critical horizontal demand zone between $3,280–$3,295, which had previously acted as a platform for last week's breakout. Unlike before, however, the bounce off this level lacked conviction. Follow-through buying failed to materialize, and the subsequent retest of the trendline met immediate selling pressure.

Technically, the chart paints a textbook shift from strength to exhaustion. A descending triangle formed over the course of the week, capped by a declining trendline and supported by a weakening base. By Thursday, price had sliced below all key short-term moving averages, and while the 200-period MA attempted to act as support, the compression suggested an imminent resolution.

Indeed, by Friday, gold made a decisive break lower—dropping beneath the $3,280 floor in a flash move that pierced $3,260, before rebounding slightly into the close. The move likely flushed out late longs and triggered stops clustered beneath prior week’s lows, a familiar pattern when markets unwind crowded trend-following positions.

Macro drivers exacerbated the slide. A modest rebound in the US dollar and firmer Treasury yields—driven by hawkish Fedspeak and improving jobless data—dampened gold’s appeal. While geopolitical risk remained elevated, it failed to provide sufficient support in the face of shifting rate expectations and waning speculative flows.

By week’s end, the structural outlook had deteriorated. What was previously a bullish continuation setup had devolved into a vulnerable consolidation with asymmetric downside risk. Should gold fail to reclaim the $3,300–$3,310 band early next week, a deeper retracement toward the $3,230–$3,250 zone appears increasingly likely.

Gold, for now, remains caught between narratives—still fundamentally supported, but technically fragile.