Gold clings to strong gains near 1-month tops ahead of US durable goods

   •  Global trade war fears trigger global risk aversion trade and underpin safe-haven demand.
   •  Faltering USD provides an additional boost and remains supportive of the strong up-move. 

Gold held on to its daily gains to over 1-month tops and is currently placed at over 1-month tops ahead of the US data.

The US President Donald Trump's move towards long-promised anti-China tariffs prompted a fresh wave of global risk aversion trade, as depicted by sell-off across world equity markets, and underpinned the precious metal's safe-haven demand.

The US Dollar also faltered on rising global trade war fears and provided an additional to dollar-denominated commodities and further collaborated to the metal's strong up-move to its highest level since Feb. 20.

Further gains, however, remained capped amid a modest rebound in the US Treasury bond yields, which tends to drive flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal. Nevertheless, the commodity remains on track to post strong gains of over 2.0% for the week and all set for its highest weekly close since mid-Feb.

Traders now look forward to the US economic docket,  highlighting the release of durable goods orders, in order to grab some short-term trading opportunities on the last trading day of the week. 

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is pegged near the $1348-49 region, above which the bullish momentum could get extended towards $1353 and $1358 supply zones. On the flip side, $1338-37 area now seems to protect the immediate downside, which if broken might prompt some additional profit-taking slide back towards $1330-28 horizontal support.