Gold hits near 4-month tops amid broad-based USD sell off

   •  Gains strong traction on heavy USD supply.
   •  Comments by Chinese officials weigh heavily on the USD.
   •  Reviving safe-haven demand lends additional support.

After an initial dip to one-week lows, gold gained some fresh traction and spiked to near 4-month tops in the past hour.

The precious metal touched an intraday high level of $1327.74, tracking broad-based US Dollar sell-off following a report that Chinese officials have recommended slowing or halting purchases of US Treasuries.

   •  China officials said to recommend slowing or halting Treasury buying

The news triggered a kneejerk reaction in the fixed income market and also hit global equity markets, which provided an additional boost to the yellow metal's safe-haven appeal.

The USD selling pressure seems to have receded, at least for the time being and was now seen keeping a lid on any additional gains for dollar-denominated commodities - like gold.

Currently trading around $$1324 level, traders now look forward to the US economic docket, featuring the second-tier releases of import prices and the final wholesale inventories data, for some short-term momentum play.

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through buying interest has the potential to lift the commodity towards $1332-33 supply zone, above which the momentum is likely to get extended towards $1340 ahead of the $1349-50 region.

On the downside, $1320 level now seems to protect the immediate downside, which if broken could drag the metal back towards $1312 horizontal level en-route $1308 strong support.