Gold falls to session low, around $1290 level ahead of Fedspeak

   “¢   A modest USD rebound seemed to exert some selling pressure.
   “¢   Fading safe-haven demand adds to the intraday corrective slide.
   “¢   Fedspeak, with the key focus on Powell, eyed for fresh impetus.

Gold extended its intraday retracement slide from closer to multi-month tops and dropped to fresh session lows, around $1289 level in the last hour.

The precious metal failed to capitalize on the early up-move and once again failed near the $1296 supply zone, or ahead of the key $1300 round figure mark amid a modest US Dollar rebound.

The greenback recovered a part previous session’s fall to three-month lows, triggered by dovish FOMC meeting minutes, and was seen as one of the key factors weighing on the dollar-denominated commodity.

Meanwhile, the latest leg of a sudden fall over the past hour or so followed a larger than expected fall in the US initial weekly jobless claims, coming in at 216K as compared to 233K previous.

This coupled with a goodish bounce across equity markets further weighed on the commodity’s perceived safe-haven status and collaborated to the ongoing corrective slide, though weaker US bond yields might help limit losses.

It would now be interesting to see if the commodity is able to attract fresh buying interest at lower levels or the pull-back, reaffirming a stiff resistance near the $1300 handle, prompts some aggressive long-unwinding trade.  

Moving ahead, scheduled speeches by influential FOMC members, with the key focus on comments by the Fed Chair Jerome Powell, will now be looked upon for some meaningful trading impetus.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate support is pegged near the $1286-85 region, below which the commodity is likely to accelerate the fall towards retesting $1280 strong support. On the flip side, the $1293-95 region might continue to act as a key hurdle, which if cleared should trigger a short-covering rally, even beyond the $1300 mark, towards $1305-06 region.