Gold climbs to near 2-week tops, above $1225 level

   •  A fresh wave of a global risk-aversion trade underpins traditional safe-haven assets.
   •  The prevalent USD selling bias provides an additional boost and remains supportive.

Gold reversed an early dip to $1221 area and turned higher to hit near two-week tops during the early European session. 

A combination of supporting forces helped the precious metal to build on last week's goodish up-move from over one-month lows and traded with a mild positive bias for the sixth consecutive session.

A fresh wave of global risk-aversion trade, triggered by a steep overnight sell-off on Wall Street, turned out to be one of the key factors driving flows towards traditional safe-haven assets.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar added to Friday's broad-based weakness, triggered by dovish comments by the Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, and provided an additional boost to the dollar-denominated commodity.

The greenback nosedived on Friday after Clarida, in an interview on CNBC, said that interest rates are nearing a neutral rate and warned of a slowing global economy. 

However, the recent comments from various Fed officials indicated that interest rates are likely to rise further, which might eventually keep a lid on any runaway rally for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Traders now look forward to the US housing market data, due for release later during the early North-America session, in order to capture some short-term momentum play. 

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through up-move beyond $1227 area is likely to accelerate the up-move towards the $1233-35 heavy supply zone en-route $1240 strong horizontal resistance. On the flip side, $1220 level is likely to protect the immediate downside, which if broken might prompt some additional weakness towards 100-day SMA support near the $1213 region.