Gold ticks lower to $1220, though downside remains limited

   •  Struggles to build on last week’s goodish rebound, despite a subdued USD demand.
   •  Bullish traders also seemed rather unaffected by fading US-China trade optimism.

Gold came under some fresh selling pressure at the start of a new trading week and eroded a part of Friday's strong up-move to over one-week tops. 

The Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida's dovish comments on Friday, saying that interest rates are nearing a neutral rate, prompted some aggressive US Dollar selling and turned out to be one of the key factors underpinning the dollar-denominated commodity.

Fed rate hike uncertainty was evident from a sudden fall in the US Treasury bond yields, which provided an additional boost and lifted the non-yielding yellow metal to an intraday high level of $1225.

Meanwhile, the US President Donald Trump's optimistic trade-related comments, saying that the US may not have to impose further tariffs on China, dampened the precious metal's safe-haven status and capped any further up-move.

However, trade tensions between the world's two largest economies resurfaced after leaders failed to agree on a communique at an APEC meeting in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, albeit did little to provide any fresh impetus to the commodity.

Meanwhile, bullish traders seemed rather unimpressed from a subdued USD price action, and also shrugged off the prevalent cautious mood around equity markets, and opted to take some profits off the table after last week's strong up-move of over 2%.

In absence of any major market moving economic releases from the US, traders are likely to take cues from the USD price dynamics and the broader market risk sentiment in order to grab some short-term opportunities.

Technical levels to watch

Any subsequent fall is likely to find support at 100-day SMA, around the $1214-13 region, below which the slide could further get extended back towards the $1207 horizontal support. On the flip side, the $1225 region now becomes immediate resistance, which if cleared might continue lifting the commodity further towards its next major hurdle near the $1233-34 supply zone.