Gold bulls take a breather just ahead of $1326 level, or multi-month tops

   •  The prevalent USD selling bias helped gain traction for the third straight session.
   •  US-China trade optimism-led risk-on mood seemed to keep a lid on further gains.
   •  This week’s release of FOMC meeting minutes to provide a fresh directional impetus.

Gold held on to its positive tone at the start of a new trading week, albeit trimmed a part of its early gains back closer to multi-month tops. 

The precious metal built on last week's goodish up-move from the $1300 neighbourhood and continued gaining positive traction for the third consecutive session amid the prevalent US Dollar selling bias. 

The greenback held on the defensive after Both the US and China reported progress in trade negotiations last week and was seen as one of the key factors benefitting the dollar-denominated commodity.

Meanwhile, dovish Fed expectations remained supportive of the momentum, though the prevalent risk-on mood seemed to dampen the precious metal's safe-haven demand and kept a lid on any strong follow-through.

The USD price dynamics might continue to act as an exclusive driver of the commodity’s move on Monday amid absent relevant market moving economic releases on the back of the Presidents' Day holiday in the US.

Moving ahead, this week's important release of the FOMC meeting minutes might provide fresh hints on the Fed's 2019 rate hike path and eventually provide some fresh directional impetus for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Technical levels to watch

On a sustained move beyond multi-month tops, around the $1326 area, the commodity is likely to accelerate the up-move towards $1333-35 intermediate supply zone en-route the next major hurdle near the $1340-41 region. On the flip side, the $1317 level now seems to protect the immediate downside and is followed by support near $1313 area, which if broken might accelerate the fall towards $1305 horizontal support.