Gold: Next week's key macroeconomic events to keep an eye on

The XAU/USD pair gained 0.65% last week and registered highest weekly close since September 2011 at $1,810. Although the pair dropped below $1,800 during the first half of the week, the selling pressure surrounding the greenback allowed it to gain traction.

Upbeat macroeconomic data releases from the United States and the risk-on atmosphere, reflected by rising global equity indexes, made it difficult for the USD to find demand as a safe-haven. Next week's economic calendar will be relatively quiet and the risk perception could remain as the sole driver of XAU/USD's movements.

Coming up next week

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) will announce its interest rate decision in the early trading hours of the Asian session on Monday. Although it's unlikely, a sharp reaction in major equity indexes could ramp up the volatility at the start of the week.

After this event, there won't be any significant macroeconomic data releases until the US Department of Labor publishes the weekly Initial Jobless Claims data on Thursday. Last week, 1.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits and a reading below 1 million could trigger a rally in US stock markets and weigh on the greenback.

On Friday, the IHS Markit will publish the preliminary Manufacturing and Services PMI reports for Germany, the euro area and later the US. Experts expect to see that the activity in the private sector continued to recover. However, if the data from the US reflect that rising coronavirus cases in the US in July impacted the activity negatively, the USD could gather strength against its peers and drag XAU/USD lower.