• Risk-on mood favors gold buyers amid downbeat US dollar, Treasury yields.
• Sluggish US data cools down inflation concerns, helps Fed to defend easy money policies.
• Geopolitical, covid headlines can offer intermediate moves but nothing major to keep a tab on.

Gold surrendered a major part of its intraday gains to the highest level since early February and was last seen trading around the $1,846 region, nearly unchanged for the day. A goodish rebound in the US Treasury bond yields turned out to be a key factor that prompted some profit-taking around the non-yielding yellow metal. That said, a combination of factors should help limit any deeper losses amid absent relevant market moving economic releases from the US.

Investors seem convinced that the Fed will keep interest rates low for a longer period. This, in turn, continued weighing on the US dollar and extended some support to the dollar-denominated commodity. Apart from this, a generally softer risk tone – amid worries over the continuous surge in new COVID-19 cases in Asia – further acted as a tailwind for traditional safe-haven assets, including gold.

Strong resistance seems to have formed at $1,860, where the descending trendline and the Fibonacci 61.8% retracement of the January-March downtrend meets. A daily close above that level could attract buyers and open the door for additional gains toward $1,875 (static level, January 21 high, January 29 high).

$1,820 (Fibonacci 50% retracement) could be seen as the initial support ahead of $1,800 (psychological level, 100-day SMA, 20-day SMA). With a convincing drop below the latter, additional losses toward $1,780 (Fibonacci 38.2% retracement) could be witnessed