Gold rallies to 3-week tops ahead of US macro data

Gold finally broke out of its weekly trading range and surged to three-week highs near $1267 level ahead of the US macro data.

The precious metal's strong up-move since early European session could be attributed to reemergence of greenback selling interest. In fact, the key US Dollar Index reversed Thursday's upbeat weekly jobless claims data-led gains and has now retreated back to the 97.00 handle, which is eventually benefitting dollar-denominated commodities - like gold.

Adding to this, weaker investors' appetite for riskier assets, as depicted by bearish trading sentiment in equity markets and sliding US treasury bond yields, provided an additional lift to the yellow metal's safe-haven appeal and collaborated to the up-surge to the highest level since early May. 

Today's strong move clearly seems to suggest that markets might have already priced-in June Fed rate-hike action. Hence, any fresh disappointment from today's important US macro data - GDP print and Durable Goods Orders, would help the commodity to build on to its recent up-surge from near two-month lows touched during the early half of this month. 

   •  US: Q1 GDP and durable goods order in focus - TDS

Technical levels to watch

Bulls would be eyeing to conquer $1268 immediate horizontal resistance, above which the upward trajectory is likely to get extended towards the next strong hurdle near $1275-76 area. On the downside, $1260 level now seems to protect immediate downside, which if broken could accelerate the slide back towards $1250 intermediate support en-route the very important 200-day SMA near $1244-43 region.