Gold struggles near two-month lows, around $1950 area

• Gold remained under some selling pressure for the fourth straight session on Thursday.
• The prevalent USD buying continued weighing on the dollar-denominated commodity.
• The risk-off mood did little to lend any support or stall the ongoing bearish trajectory.

Gold remained depressed through the first half of the trading action on Thursday and was last seen hovering near two-month lows, around the $1950 region.

The precious metal prolonged this week’s bearish break through the $1900 strong horizontal support and witnessed some follow-through selling for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday. The ongoing downtrend was exclusively sponsored by strengthening US dollar, which tends to undermine demand for the dollar-denominated commodity.

The second wave of coronavirus infections raised uncertainty over the economic recovery and continued boosting the greenback’s status as the global reserve currency. The USD bulls seemed rather unaffected and largely shrugged off warnings by various Fed officials about the need for further stimulus measures to sustain the recovery.

Meanwhile, the prevalent risk-off environment – as depicted by a weaker tone surrounding the equity markets – did little to revive the precious metal’s safe-haven demand. Even a fall in the US Treasury bond yields failed to lend any support to the non-yielding yellow metal or stall the ongoing slide to the lowest level since July 22nd.

Market participants now look forward to the US economic docket, highlighting the release of Initial Weekly Jobless Claims and New Home Sales data. This, along with a scheduled testimony by the Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, will influence the USD price dynamics and produce some short-term trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch