Gold edges higher to recover a part of Thursday’s sharp decline

   •  A subdued USD demand/retracing US bond yields helped regain some traction.
   •  US-China trade optimism undermines safe-haven demand and seemed to cap.

Gold edged higher on the last trading day of the week and recovered a part of the overnight sharp fall back closer to weekly lows.

The precious metal stalled this week's retracement slide from ten-month tops and managed to regain some positive traction on Friday. A subdued US Dollar demand, led by a weaker tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields, turned out to be one of the key factors benefitting the dollar-denominated commodity.

Meanwhile, investors looked past the latest FOMC meeting minutes, with Thursday's weaker US macro data - durable goods orders and Philly Fed manufacturing index reaffirming expectations that the Fed will hold interest rates steady and extending some additional support to the non-yielding yellow metal. 

Further gains, however, remained limited in wake of the latest positive trade news, wherein the world's two biggest economies were reported to be currently outlining a deal and may soon reach an agreement, which dampened the precious metal's perceived relative safe-haven status. 

In absence of any major market moving economic releases from the US, speeches by influential FOMC members will play an important role in influencing the price-action and might produce some meaningful trading opportunities on the last trading day of the week. 

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is now pegged near the $1330 level, above which the commodity is likely to accelerate the up-move towards $1335-36 supply zone before eventually aiming to surpass the $1340 hurdle. On the flip side, the $1321-20 region now seems to have emerged as immediate support, which if broken might prompt some additional weakness towards $1315-14 horizontal support en-route $1306-04 zone.