Gold off 9-month tops, steadies near $ 1325 ahead of US NFP

• Stalls the upside on US-China trade optimism, USD rebound and risk-on.
• Fed rate pause risks, a boost in SPDR Gold holdings remain supportive.
• Attention turns towards US labor market report for next direction.

The correction in gold (futures on Comex) from nine-month highs of 1330.15 stalled and the rates entered a phase of consolidation around the 1325 levels, as the bulls await the highly-influential US payrolls and earnings data for the next push higher.

The yellow metal keeps its range near the highest levels since April 2018, the aggressively dovish tone delivered by the Fed on its rate hike forward guidance, boosted the non-yielding gold at the expense of the US dollar and Treasury.

However, the latest leg down in the commodity can be mainly attributed to the renewed risk-on trades seen on the global equities amid US-China trade optimism following some progress in trade talks between the US President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu.

In the day ahead, the USD dynamics will play a pivotal role in the gold price-action, as all eyes remain on key event risk, the US payrolls, which will wrap up an eventful FOMC week.

Gold Technical Levels