By Barani Krishnan

-- A cursory glance at the gold market might not brood too much optimism, with prices sitting below the relatively-bullish $1,800 level.

Technical charts, however, indicate that so long as the yellow metal does not settle below $1,780, all may still be good for longs in the market.

And as of Tuesday, neither the benchmark gold futures contract on New York’s Comex nor the spot price of bullion settled below that level.

“The recent upside that took gold to $1,800 remains fairly intact, unless the $1,780 closing low is breached,” said Sunil Kumar Dixit, chief technical strategist at SKCharting.com.

The benchmark gold futures contract on New York’s Comex, December, settled at $1,789.70, down $8.40, or 0.4%, to add to Monday’s decline of almost 1%. Tuesday’s session low for December gold was $1,786.05.

The spot price of bullion, more closely followed than futures by some traders, was at $1,775.82 by 15:55 ET (19:55 GMT), down $3.69, or 0.2%, on the day. Spot gold hit a session low of $1,771.45 before pulling higher.

Gold could remain boxed at just under $1,800 till the release of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes on Wednesday.

The Fed minutes have taken on increasing importance after a blowout U.S. jobs report for July eased fears over the prospect of recession. Last week’s inflation data pointed to the largest monthly slowdown in consumer price increases since 1973.

Traders are currently pricing in a less hawkish Fed, with fed fund futures showing a greater chance of officials raising rates by 50 basis points when they meet in late September, instead of 75 basis points as they have done at their last two meetings.