Gold retreats from 5-week tops amid a modest USD rebound
• A follow-through USD recovery prompts some long-unwinding trade.
• Risk-off mood/sliding US bond yields likely to help limit any sharp fall.
Gold extended its steady decline through the early European trading session and eroded a major part of the previous session's strong up-move to five-week tops.
The US Dollar built on its modest rebound and turned out to be one of the key factors prompting some fresh selling around the dollar-denominated commodity, albeit a combination of factors helped limit deeper losses.
The prevalent risk-off mood, especially after the overnight slump of over 3% in US stocks, was seen extending some support to the precious metal's perceived safe-haven status.
Adding to this, speculations of a pause in the Fed's rate hike cycle in 2019, reinforced by a continuous slide in the US Treasury bond yields further collaborated towards limiting any sharp slide for the non-yielding yellow metal.
Hence, it would be prudent to wait for a strong follow-through selling, amid absent relevant market moving economic releases, before confirming that the commodity might have already topped out in the near-term.
Technical levels to watch
Any subsequent fall is likely to find support near the $1230 level, below which the corrective slide could further get extended towards the $1225-23 horizontal support. On the flip side, the $1238-39 region now seems to act as an immediate resistance, which if cleared might lift the commodity further towards Oct. monthly highs, around the $1243-44 zone.
Author
Haresh Menghani
FXStreet
Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.
