Gold futures have tumbled their way down to a key level, according to Miller Tabak equity strategist Matt Maley.
Gold was trading at $1,207.60 on Monday. Three days earlier, gold fell as low as $1,206.60 per troy ounce, its lowest level since mid-March. The move followed an impressive nonfarm payrolls number that put the economy in brighter light, making safe-haven gold less attractive and perhaps making an additional Federal Reserve rate hike this year look more likely.
More generally, it's been a tough few weeks for gold, which has slipped as bond yields have risen.
Signs of rising inflation are "coming back into the market," Susquehanna head of derivative strategy Stacey Gilbert said Friday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "The last time this happened, [which was] postelection, gold sold off almost 13 percent" to drop below $1,300.
"The options market is saying there's a 20 percent probability we could finish at or below that level by year-end," Gilbert added.
From a chart perspective, gold is "at a key point right now" and "looks really treacherous right here," Maley said on "Power Lunch."
In the past three months, the commodity has twice moved up to $1,300 and then turned down, he noted.
"A month ago it looked fabulous. Now it looks horrible. A month ago it rolled over immediately. So it's going to have to bounce back immediately it it's going to bounce at all," since it has recently taken out several important levels of support, he said.
"If we see a further lower low next week, it's going to be really tough," Maley added in Friday's interview.
Gold is up a bit more than 5 percent this year.
