Gold consolidates near 4-week tops, $ 1300 still in sight

Gold futures on Comex eased-off multi-week tops reached at $ 1293.20 in the overnight trades, now consolidating yesterday’s rally amid broad-based US dollar recovery.

Gold: Holds above 100-DMA support at $ 1288.05

Gold prices trades little changed so far this session, although remains on track to book the third straight weekly rise, as the traditional safe-haven continues to derive support from cautious markets, as they head into the Next Year, with the North Korean nuke threats, EU political instability and Fed rate hike expectations expected to emerge the main risks in 2018.

The stalled rally in the yellow metal during the Asian trades is largely on the back of a minor-recovery staged by the US dollar against its main peers while risk-on market profile amid higher Asian equities and oil prices dull the attractiveness of the safe-haven assets such as gold. The USD index flirts with session tops of 92.68, having found some support near 92.55 region.

Focus now shifts towards the US jobless claims, goods trade balance, and Chicago PMI data for fresh incentives, as markets still digest the upbeat US pending home sales data released a day before.

Gold Technical Levels

Eren Sengezer, Analyst at FXStreet, noted: “The CCI indicator on the daily chart for the pair continues to float above the 100 mark, suggesting that buyers are still in control of the price action. $1300 (psychological level) could be seen as the first critical resistance. A decisive rise above that level could open the door to $1306 (Oct. 16 high) and $1313 (Sep. 29 high). On the downside, supports align at $1272 (50-DMA/200-DMA), $1265 (Dec. 22 low) and $1259 (Dec. 19 low).”