Gold hangs near 3-week lows, well below $1300 mark
• Fading safe-haven demand prompts some fresh selling on Monday.
• A follow-through upsurge in the US bond yields added to the pressure.
• A modest USD pull-back helped limit further downside, at least for now.
Gold prices edged lower at the start of a new trading week and remained within striking distance of over three-week lows, set in the previous session.
A fresh wave of global risk-on trade, supported by upbeat Chinese data, was seen weighing on the precious metal's relative safe-haven status. In fact, the Caixin Chinese manufacturing PMI, after shrinking for three straight months, came in at 50.8 for March and lifted global risk sentiment.
The risk-on mood remained supported by growing optimism over progress in the US-China trade talks, which coupled with a strong follow-through recovery in the US Treasury bond yields further collaborated towards driving flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal.
However, a mildly softer tone surrounding the US Dollar, which failed to build on last week's strong gains to over three-week tops, turned to be the only factor lending some support to the dollar-denominated commodity and helped limit deeper losses, at least for the time being.
Moving ahead, today's US economic docket, highlighting the release of monthly retail sales data and ISM manufacturing PMI, will now be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities later during the early North-American session.
Technical levels to watch
The $1286-85 region might continue to act as immediate support and is closely followed by March monthly lows, around the $1280 region, coinciding with 100-day SMA, below which the commodity is likely to accelerate the fall further towards $1270-68 support area.
On the flip side, any attempted recovery back above the $1293-94 immediate resistance now seems to confront some fresh supply near the key $1300 psychological mark, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering bounce towards the $1307-09 strong resistance zone.