Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD steadily climbs to $1880 area, fresh session tops

Gold edged higher during the early North American session and refreshed daily tops, around the $1880 region post-US macro releases, though lacked follow-through buying.

A combination of supporting factors assisted the precious metal to regain positive traction on Thursday and reverse a major part of the previous day's losses. As investors digested the recent optimism over a potential COVID-19 vaccine, a pullback in the global equity markets revived demand for traditional safe-haven assets, including gold.

The global flight to safety was further reinforced by a steep decline in the US Treasury bond yields, which provided an additional boost to the non-yielding yellow metal. Apart from this, a softer tone surrounding the US dollar further benefitted the dollar-denominated commodity and remained supportive of the intraday uptick.

Concerns about the economic fallout from the continuous surge in new coronavirus cases in the United States revived hopes for substantial stimulus packages to support the economy. This, in turn, kept the USD bulls on the defensive. The greenback was further pressured by Thursday's weaker-than-expected US consumer inflation figures.

In fact, the headline CPI remained flat in October and the yearly rate fell to 1.2% from 1.4% in the previous month. Meanwhile, core CPI (excluding energy and food costs) also fell short of market expectations and edged lower to 1.6% from 1.7% previous. Separately, the US Initial Jobless Claims fell more-than-anticipated, though did little to impress the USD bulls.

Meanwhile, the upside is likely to remain limited, at least for the time being, as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the Fed Chair Jerome Powell's scheduled speech. Moreover, the XAU/USD has been oscillating in a range over the past three trading sessions, which further warrants caution before placing any aggressive directional bets.

Technical levels to watch