Gold spikes to fresh session tops, closer to $1660 level

• Gold gains some positive traction amid a subdued USD price action.
• Concerns over an imminent global recession remained supportive.
• Bulls seemed rather unaffected by the prevailing risk-on environment.

Gold finally broke out of its Asian session consolidation phase and spiked to fresh daily tops, around the $1658 region in the last hour.

Following a directionless trading action over the past two trading sessions, the precious metal gained some positive traction on Thursday and the uptick seemed unaffected by the prevailing risk-on mood.

Investors turned optimistic on forecasts that the coronavirus pandemic may be reaching its peak and the improving risk sentiment evident from some follow-through positive move in the global equity markets.

Meanwhile, concerns over an imminent global recession and expectations of a prolonged period of low/negative interest rates extended some additional support to the non-yielding yellow metal.

This coupled with a subdued US dollar price action, weighed down by a mildly weaker tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields, provided an additional boost to the dollar-denominated commodity.

Despite the positive move, the metal remains well below multi-week tops set on Tuesday, which should now act as a key pivotal point and help determine the next leg of a directional move.

Moving ahead, Thursday’s US economic docket – highlighting the release of initial weekly jobless claims and March PPI figures – will now be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch