Gold hits a fresh record high, near $2065 region

Gold edged higher during the early North American session and shot to fresh record highs, around the $2064-65 region in the last hour.

The precious metal built on this week's bullish break through the key $2000 psychological mark and gained some strong follow-through traction for the third consecutive session on Thursday. The ongoing momentum was being supported by concerns that the ever-increasing coronavirus cases could undermine the US economic recovery.

The market worries were further fueled by Wednesday's disappointing ADP report, which indicated that the labour market recovery was faltering. Adding to this, the political stalemate over the shape and size of the next U.S. fiscal recovery package extended some additional support to the precious metal's perceived safe-haven status.

Meanwhile, the latest leg of an uptick over the past hour or so could further be attributed a fresh leg down in the US Treasury bond yields. In fact, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US government bond dropped back closer to an all-time closing low level of 0.501% and further benefitted the non-yielding yellow metal.

Bulls seemed rather unaffected by a modest US dollar rebound from two-year lows, which tends to drive flows away from the dollar-denominated commodity. Even Thursday's better than expected Initial Weekly Jobless Claims, coming in at 1.186 million as compared to 1.415 million expected, did little to prompt any profit-taking.

The fact that the commodity is yet to show any signs of bullish exhaustion, the stage seems set for an extension of the strong bullish trend. However, some repositioning trade ahead of Friday's closely watched US monthly jobs report (NFP) might infuse some volatility. That said, any meaningful dips might still be seen as a buying opportunity.

Technical levels to watch