Gold corrects from near 10-month tops, focus remains on US-China trade talks

   •  A modest USD uptick exerts some fresh downward pressure on Tuesday.
   •  US-China trade optimism further adds to the selling bias/corrective slide. 
   •  Focus remains on the next round of US-China trade talks/FOMC minutes.

Gold prices edged lower through the Asian session on Tuesday and eroded a major part of the previous session's up-move to a near-10 month high.

The precious metal stalled its recent positive momentum and for now, seems to have snapped three-consecutive days of winning streak amid some renewed US Dollar buying interest. As traders awaited more clarity on the US-China trade talks, the greenback regained some traction and was seen as one of the key factors exerting some downward pressure on the dollar-denominated commodity.

Hence, market participants will keep a close eye on the next round of US-China negotiations in Washington this week, wherein Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He is set to meet US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Investors this week will also confront the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting, due on Wednesday, which might provide some fresh insight over the central bank's monetary policy outlook for 2019 and eventually provide some meaningful directional impetus for the non-yielding yellow metal.

In the meantime, the USD price dynamics and the broader market risk sentiment might continue to influence the precious metal's price action on Tuesday amid absent market moving economic releases from the US.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent slide is likely to find immediate support near the $1217 region and is closely followed by the $1214 horizontal zone, below which the commodity is likely to accelerate the fall further towards $1306 support area. On the flip side, the $1326-27 region now seems to have emerged as an immediate resistance, which if cleared set the stage for further appreciating move towards $1332-33 supply zone.