Gold climbs to 3-day tops, inching back closer to $1200 mark

   •  A fresh wave of global risk-aversion trade helps revive safe-haven demand.
   •  Sliding US bond yields/weakening USD remains supportive of the positive move. 
   •  Investors now eye US consumer inflation figures for a fresh directional impetus.

Gold prices edged higher for the third consecutive session on Thursday and built on its goodish rebound from over one-week lows, set on Monday. 

A combination of supporting factors helped the precious metal to reverse an early dip to $1191 area and continue gaining positive traction through the early European session. 

The global flight to safety, triggered by the ongoing rout in equity markets, underpinned the commodity's safe-haven demand. The risk-off mood was further reinforced by a steep fall in the US Treasury bond yields, which further benefitted the non-yielding yellow metal.

Adding to this, the US Dollar retreated farther from seven-week tops and provided an additional boost to the dollar-denominated commodity, lifting it to three-day tops and back closer to the key $1200 psychological mark.

It, however, remains to be seen if the positive momentum is sustainable or is once again utilized as an opportunity to sell at higher levels. Market participants now look forward to the latest US consumer inflation figures, which might influence Fed rate hike expectations and eventually provide some fresh directional impetus.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent up-move beyond the $1200 mark is likely to confront resistance near the $1203-04 region, above which the momentum could further get extended towards $1209-10 supply zone. On the flip side, the $1191 area now seems to have emerged as an immediate strong support and is followed by $1187 horizontal zone, which if broken might accelerate the slide further towards $1183-82 support area.