Gold retreats farther below $1350 level ahead of US jobs data
• A modest USD rebound prompts fresh selling.
• Surging US bond yields offset risk-off environment.
• Focus remains on the key US monthly jobs data.
Gold traded with a mild negative bias through the mid-European session on Friday and has now eroded all the previous session's modest gains.
The precious metal stall its modest uptick witnessed over the past two trading sessions and failed to build on its strength further beyond the $1350-51 region. A goodish pickup in the US Dollar demand was seen denting demand for dollar-denominated commodities - like gold.
Meanwhile, a fresh wave of global risk aversion trade, which tends to benefit the precious metal's safe-haven demand, seems to have been largely offset by a strong follow-through upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields and did little to lend any support.
It would now be interesting to see if the commodity is able to regain any traction or continues with its near-term consolidative price-action as investors look forward to the keenly watched US monthly jobs report, NFP, before positioning for the next leg of directional move.
Technical levels to watch
Immediate support is pegged near the $1340-38 region, which if broken could drag the commodity further towards $1332 intermediate level en-route $1326 strong horizontal support.
On the upside, the $1350 region now seems to act as an immediate resistance, above which the metal seems to dart towards $1358 supply zone en-route recent swing highs resistance near $1366 level.