At the end of last week several unfavorable factors exerted strong pressure on the yellow metal and caused a dramatic plunge in its prices.

Last week, Friday was the worst day for gold. The precious metal ended its confident rally which lasted for 3 sessions in a row ahead of the weekend. Gold has added 2.4% since Tuesday. However, by the end of the week it lost most of its weekly gain.

During Friday's trading gold sank by 1.6%. In terms of money the difference was $25.6 compared to the previous session. The yellow metal dropped to $1,768.3, while it hit $1,797.9 on Thursday, its highest level since September 14.

A combination of unfavorable factors, including strong US economic data, led to a bearish scenario in the gold market.

At the end of the working week the report on US retail sales for September was published. Economists had predicted the reading would fall by 0.2% compared to August. On the contrary, it rose by 0.7%.

Analysts believe that the Fed hawks will use the latest statistics to accelerate the reduction of asset purchases by $15 billion a month.

Another signal that indicates the US regulator may start cutting asset purchases as early as next month is another increase in the 10-year Treasury bond yield. The figure reached 1.56% on Friday.

The rebound in the US stock markets, which was recorded at the end of the week, presented another obstacle for gold. After the US retail sales report was released, the Dow Jones jumped 1.09% to a one-month high, the S&P 500 gained 0.75%, and the NASDAQ Composite added 0.50%.

Increased investors' appetite for such risky assets as stocks negatively affects the pricing of the precious metal, which is traditionally considered a reliable financial instrument.

Besides, at the end of the week the demand for another risky asset, bitcoin, increased considerably. The main cryptocurrency was trading above $63,000 on Friday. Its daily gain was almost $5,000 or more than 8%.

The value of the digital coin accelerated amid the approval of the first US bitcoin-ETF, which will be based on bitcoin futures. Today, on October 18, the launch of this exchange-traded fund is due.

Meanwhile, gold started the new trading week with a slight uptrend, supported by the weakening US dollar and falling 10-year US bond yields. At the time of writing this article, gold was up 0.1% to $1,770.50.

Silver also gained. The price of the asset rose by 0.2% to $23.34, compared to the previous session, when it lost nearly 0.6% of its value.

Despite Friday's decline, both gold and silver closed last week with gains. The yellow metal added 0.6%, demonstrating its biggest weekly gain since late August. At the same time, the grey asset went up about 2.8%.

During the current week, experts remain optimistic about precious metals. For example, analyst Chintan Karnani expects gold to trade in a wider trading range from $1,740 to $1,820. He prefers a buying strategy on falling prices due to this reason.