Gold retreats from 5-month tops, slides to $1247-46 on profit-taking

   •  A modest USD rebound prompts some profit-taking at higher levels.
   •  Fed rate hike pause talks might help limit any immediate sharp fall.

Gold extended its steady decline from five-month tops and is currently placed at the lower end of its daily trading range, around the $1246 level. 

With investors looking past Friday's disappointing US monthly jobs report, a modest US Dollar rebound turned out to be one of the key factors prompting some profit-taking at higher levels. 

Adding to this, the risk sentiment was looking to get a little better during the early European trading session and further collaborated towards dampening the precious metal's safe-haven demand. 

The downside, however, is likely to remain cushioned amid growing speculations may stop raising interest rates in 2019, sooner than expected, which tends to drive flows towards the non-yielding yellow metal. 

Hence, it would prudent to wait for a strong follow-through selling before confirming that the commodity might have already topped out in the near-term.

Broader market risk-sentiment and the USD price dynamics might continue to act as key drivers of the commodity's momentum on the first day of a new trading week amid absent relevant market moving economic releases.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent fall below $1243 level could get extended further towards retesting the $1238 strong horizontal resistance, now turned support. On the flip side, a sustained move beyond $1250-51 region now seems to pave the way for an extension of the positive momentum further towards $1258-60 resistance area.