Gold flirting with session lows, just above $1,310 level

   •  The USD climbs to 6-week tops and exerts some fresh downward pressure.
   •  Risk-off mood/resurfacing US-China trade tensions might help limit losses.

Gold met with some fresh supply at the start of a new week and is currently placed at the lower end of its daily trading range, just above $1310 level.

The precious metal struggled to build on last week's late rebound from over one-week lows and came under some renewed selling pressure in wake of the continuation of the recent US Dollar rally.

Despite the recent dovish shift by the Federal Reserve, the USD stood tall near six-week tops and was seen as one of the key factors exerting some fresh downward pressure on the dollar-denominated commodity.

The USD seemed rather unaffected by the ongoing decline in the US Treasury bond yields, albeit the prevalent cautious mood underpinned the metal's safe-haven demand and helped limit deeper losses, at least for now.

Given the recent concerns over global growth slowdown, resurfacing US-China trade tensions continued to dent investors’ appetite for riskier assets and was evident from a weaker tone across global equity markets.

With the USD price dynamics turning out to be an exclusive driver of the commodity's momentum, market participants now look forward to this week's scheduled speeches by influential FOMC members, including the Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

This followed by important US macro data - the latest inflation figures and monthly retail sales might further collaborate towards providing a meaningful directional impetus for the commodity.

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through weakness below $1310 level could get extended towards $1307-06 support area, which if broken might accelerate the fall further towards challenging the key $1300 psychological mark. 

On the flip side, the $1314-15 region now seems to have emerged as an immediate hurdle, above which the commodity is likely to aim towards testing $1321-22 supply zone en-route multi-month tops near the $1326 level.