Gold steadily moves back above $1200 mark

   •  Fresh USD selling /US-China trade tensions helped gain some traction.
   •  Surging US bond yields is likely to keep a lid on any runaway rally.

Gold struggled for a firm direction and held steady within a narrow trading range through the mid-European session.

Currently hovering around the key $1200 psychological mark, a combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus and led to a subdued/range-bounce price-action.

The US Dollar failed to build on overnight recovery move and met with some fresh supply on Tuesday, which was eventually seen lending some support to the dollar-denominated commodity.

This coupled with the recent escalation of US-China trade tensions further underpinned the precious metal's safe-haven status, albeit was largely negated by the prevalent positive mood around European equity markets. 

Meanwhile, the ongoing upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields, with yields on the benchmark 10-year bond rising to the highest level since May, might further collaborate towards capping any rally for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Next on tap will be the release of Conference Board's consumer confidence index, which will be looked upon to grab some short-term trading opportunities. The key focus, however, will remain on the latest FOMC decision, which will help determine the next leg of directional move. 

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is pegged near the $1206-07 region and is closely followed by $1211-13 area, above which the commodity is likely to aim towards testing the $1222-23 supply zone. 

On the flip side, the $1197 level now seems to protect the immediate downside, which if broken might prompt some additional weakness towards $1188 zone en-route the $1183-82 region.