Gold climbs to fresh multi-week tops, closer to $1740 level

Gold finally broke out of its bullish consolidation phase and jumped to fresh multi-week tops, around the $1738-39 region in the last hour.

The safe-haven commodity prolonged this week's positive move and continued gaining traction for the fourth consecutive session on Friday. The uptick was supported by the prevalent cautious mood amid fears about the second wave of coronavirus infections and fading hopes for a quick global economic recovery.

This coupled with some renewed US dollar selling bias further underpinned demand for the dollar-denominated commodity and remained supportive of the momentum. The greenback struggled to capitalize on the overnight positive move triggered by US President Donald Trump's comments, advocating a stronger dollar.

In an interview with Fox Business Network, Trump said that it’s good to have a strong dollar and that it will help the economy during the recovery post coronavirus crisis. The remarks came a day after the Fed Chair Jerome Powell rejected the idea of using negative interest rates, albeit did little to impress the USD bulls.

Apart from this, the uptick could further be attributed to some technical buying following the previous day's bullish breakthrough a symmetrical triangle resistance near the $1720-22 region. Hence, some follow-through strength, back towards multi-year tops near the $1747-48 region, now looks a distinct possibility.

Friday's US economic docket highlights the release of monthly Retail Sales figures. The data might influence the USD price dynamics and produce some meaningful trading opportunities later during the early North American session.

Technical levels to watch