gold futures fell back below 2000 an ounce wednesday but stuck to a tight trading range with one analyst referring to the pullback as a gift with prices destined for record highs concerns about the us debt ceiling debate in congress and weak regional bank earnings and recession fears remain as supportive fundamental factors for prices of the safehaven metal gold is consolidating strong gains from the weeks prior  settling around the 2000 an ounce area as it builds a new market at these near record levels said peter spina president of goldseekcom the overbought conditions from weeks ago are no longer a problem and the market is simply drifting in more of a sideways range as very strong fundamentals continue to support price drops the question now is how many weeks or even months will gold trade below record setting prices spina told marketwatch the us dollar will be a driver and further weakness will help to get gold moving higher again while a bounce in the dollar will mute the gold price and keep the market patiently waiting for its next move on wednesday a weaker us dollar helped to boost gold prices in early dealings since commodities like gold are typically priced in dollars the ice us dollar index  a gauge of the bucks strength against a basket of rivals was down by 04 at 10146 off the days low of 10101 gold is destined for record price highs said spina it is just a question of the path it will take based on mostactive gold futures prices settled at a record high of 206940 on aug 6 2020 according to dow jones market data the short term is a difficult call but pullbacks are gifts said spina gold futures had climbed above 2000 on tuesday after a string of weakerthanexpected regional bank earnings and after consumer confidence tumbled raising fears of a recession fiona cincotta senior financial at city index wrote in emailed commentary readfirst republic stock slides further on questions around its survival overall market confidence remains very fragile as investors try to assess the true health of the banking sector following last months collapse of three us banks and ubs forced buyout of credit suisse said rupert rowling market analyst at kinesis money in emailed commentary while the initial contagion was contained renewed concerns over the longterm future of first republic bank have kept gold with its lack of counterparty risk in strong demand the latest round of company earnings including amazon this week will help investors determine the current state of the global economy he said adding that the numbers from the companies who have already reported point to an economy in a better state than perhaps feared still the fact that gold has still held close to 2000 an ounce illustrates how much good news is required to bolster market confidence after the big hit it took last month meanwhile city indexs cincotta said concerns over the us debt ceiling have also underpinned gold after treasury secretary janet yellen warned about the potentially severe economic consequences if the house of representatives doesnt raise the debt ceiling this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal