Gold falls to $1305, fresh session lows amid stronger USD/fading safe-haven demand

   “¢   The continuation of the recent USD rally to six-week tops prompts some fresh selling.
   “¢   Risk-on mood/a goodish pickup in the US bond yields add to the prevalent selling bias.

Gold kept losing ground through the early North-American session and is currently placed at the lower end of its daily trading range, below $1305 level.

A combination of negative forces prompted some fresh selling on the first trading day of a new week, with the precious metal snapping two consecutive days of winning streak and erasing last week’s late recovery gains from over one-week lows.  

The US Dollar added to last week’s strong rally of over 1.0% and climbed to near six-week tops on Monday, which eventually seen as one of the key factors exerting some fresh downward pressure on the dollar-denominated commodity.

Meanwhile, improving risk sentiment, further boosted by White House advisor Kellyanne Conway’s latest optimistic comments that the US and China are getting closer to deal, dampened the precious metal’s perceived safe-haven status and contributed to the offered tone.  

The risk-on mood was evident from a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, which further collaborated towards driving flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal and did little to stall the intraday slide to fresh session low in the last hour.

It would now be interesting to see if bears maintain their dominant position or the commodity is able to find any buying interest at lower levels ahead of a scheduled speech by the Fed Governor Michelle Bowman later during the US trading session.

Technical levels to watch