Gold drops to 3-week lows, further below $1290 level

   •  A follow-through uptick in the US bond yields keeps exerting some pressure.
   •  Fading safe-haven demand does little to lend any support or stall the downfall.
   •  Traders now eye US economic releases to grab some short-term opportunities.

Gold remained under some selling pressure on the last trading day of the week and dropped to three-week lows, around the $1287 level in the last hour.

The precious metal extended this week's sharp turnaround and kept losing ground for the fourth consecutive session on Friday, adding to the overnight slump back below the key $1300 psychological mark.

Despite a downward revision of the US GDP growth figures, the US Dollar rallied to near three week tops on Thursday and prompted some aggressive selling around the dollar-denominated commodity.

This coupled with a goodish bounce in the US Treasury bond yields, which extended through the early European session on Friday, exerted some additional downward pressure on the non-yielding commodity.

Meanwhile, renewed optimism over some progress in the US-China trade talks helped revive investors' appetite for perceived riskier assets and did little to lend any support to the precious metal's safe-haven status.

With the latest leg of a sharp downfall, the commodity has reversed all of its gains recorded since the beginning of this month and remains poised to record the lowest weekly close since mid-January.

Later during the early North-American session, the US economic docket - highlighting the release of the Fed's preferred inflation gauge - core PCE Price Index, will be looked upon for some meaningful trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent fall is likely to find some support near monthly lows, around the $1281 region, below which the commodity is likely to accelerate the fall further towards challenging YTD lows, near the $1277 region. On the flip side, the $1292-93 area, followed by the $1300 handle now seems to act as an immediate strong resistance, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering bounce towards $1309 supply zone.