Gold in search of a firm direction, stuck in a range around $1575 region

Gold lacked any firm directional bias and oscillated in a narrow trading band around the $1575 region through the early European session on Friday.

A combination of diverging forces failed to provide any fresh impetus, or assist the precious metal to build on the previous session's goodish positive move to over one-week tops.

The downside remains cushioned

Some signs of stability in the global financial markets undermined demand for traditional safe-haven assets and kept a lid on any subsequent positive move for the precious metal.

However, growing market concerns about the negative impact of the deadly coronavirus on the Chinese economy continued lending some support and helped limit any losses.

This coupled with a weaker tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields further played their part in cushioning the downside for the non-yielding yellow metal, at least for now.

Market participants now look forward to the US macro data, which will influence the US dollar price dynamics and produce some trading opportunities around the dollar-denominated commodity.

Friday's US economic docket highlights the release of monthly retail sales figures and will be followed by the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index later during the early North-American session.

Technical levels to watch