Gold hits fresh multi-month tops, around $1545 region

Gold continued scaling higher through the early European session on Friday and climbed to four-month tops, around the $1545 region in the last hour.

The precious metal built on its recent strong gains and gained some strong follow-through traction for the fourth consecutive session on the last trading day of the week amid reviving safe-haven demand. Escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East triggered a fresh wave of the global risk aversion trade and provided a strong boost to traditional safe-haven assets, including gold.

Gold benefits from escalating geopolitical tensions

Tensions in the Middle East intensified on reports that US airstrike killed Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general who led the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed that “severe retaliation” awaits those who killed the commander and raised prospects of a further escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The risk-off mood was evident from a sea of red across the global equity markets and reinforced by a sharp fall in the US Treasury bond yields, which further played their part in providing an additional boost to the non-yielding yellow metal. Meanwhile, a subdued US dollar price action did little to influence the dollar-denominated commodity or hinder the momentum to the highest level since September 5.

Moving ahead, Friday's release of the US ISM Manufacturing PMI will now be looked upon for some short-term trading impetus later during the early North-American session. The key focus, however, will remain on the latest FOMC monetary policy meeting minutes, which might play a key role in determining the commodity's next leg of a directional move.

Technical levels to watch