Gold pulls away from daily highs, clings to gains above $1270

• Wall Street continues to erase yesterday's gains.
• Consumer confidence declines in December in the U.S.
• T-bond yields extend slide into the NA session.

The XAU/USD pair pushed higher in the early trading hours of the NA session and touched its highest level of the day near $1277 but struggled to preserve its bullish momentum. As of writing, the pair was trading at $1273, adding $6, or 0.45% on the day.

The broad-based USD sell-off caused by the large losses seen in the Treasury bond yields provided the fuel to the pair's rise today. After closing the previous day with a gain of more than 2%, the 10-year T-bond yield erased almost all of yesterday's rally and was last seen down 1.8% on the day at 2.747%. The US Dollar Index, which broke above the 97 mark on Wednesday, also reversed its direction and was at 96.60 as of writing, losing 0.42% on a daily basis.

Additionally, the risk-off mood weighed on major equity indexes in the U.S. and provided an added boost to the safe-havens such as gold. Following a weak start to the day, Wall Street failed to stage a recovery and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both are losing more than 2%.

Meanwhile, The Conference Board today announced that the Consumer Confidence Index declined to 128.1 in December from 136.4 in November. Commenting on the data, "Expectations regarding job prospects and business conditions weakened, but still suggest that the economy will continue expanding at a solid pace in the short-term," said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. 

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