Gold slips below $1200 mark, fresh 1-month lows

   •  A modest USD uptick prompts some fresh selling at higher levels.
   •  Improving risk-sentiment further collaborate to the intraday slide.
   •  Fed rate hike expectations should keep a lid on any attempted rebound.

Gold surrendered early modest recovery gains and dropped to fresh one-month lows, below the key $1200 psychological mark, in the last hour.

A combination of negative factors kept a lid on the precious metal's early attempted rebound, with bears exerting downward pressure for the eighth consecutive session. 

The US Dollar reversed an early dip and remained within striking distance of 1-1/2 year tops, which was eventually seen prompting some fresh selling around the dollar-denominated commodity.

Adding to this, a slight improvement in investors’ appetite for riskier assets, as depicted by a positive tone around European equity markets, further dented the precious metal's safe-haven status. 

Meanwhile, firming market expectations that the Fed will stick to its gradual monetary policy tightening even beyond 2018 might continue to drive flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal. 

Hence, a follow-through weakness, led by some fresh technical selling below the $1200 handle, now looks a distinct possibility amid absent relevant market moving economic releases from the US.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent fall is likely to get extended towards $1192-91 support, below which the commodity is likely to aim towards challenging the $1183-80 important horizontal zone. On the flip side, the $1205-06 region now seems to have emerged as an immediate resistance, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering bounce towards 100-day SMA hurdle, around the $1214-15 region.