Gold climbs to session tops, inching closer to $1500 mark

• Weaker equities underpinned the commodity’s safe-haven demand.
• A pickup in the USD demand might keep a lid on any strong move up.

Gold edged higher through the early European session and is currently placed at the top end of its daily trading range, around the $1495 region.
 
Following an initial dip to the $1483 area at the start of a new trading week, the precious metal managed to regain some positive traction and built on the previous session’s late bounce from over one-week lows. The fact that the US and China reached a partial trade deal on Friday provided a strong boost to investors’ appetite for riskier assets, which eventually drove flows away from perceived safe-haven assets – including Gold.

Regains traction amid reviving safe-haven demand

The latest trade optimism faded rather quickly and was evident from a weaker tone around equity markets. A slight deterioration in the global risk sentiment turned out to be one of the key factors that underpinned the precious metal. The uptick, however, lacked any strong bullish conviction amid a goodish pickup in the US Dollar demand, which tends to weigh on dollar-denominated commodities – like Gold.
 
It will now be interesting to see if the commodity is able to build on the positive momentum or run into some fresh supply at higher levels amid absent relevant market moving economic releases. Meanwhile, the US markets will remain closed on Monday in observance of Columbus Day and holiday-thinned liquidity conditions warrant some caution before placing any aggressive directional bets.

Technical levels to watch