Gold jumps back closer to $1300 mark, bulls remain in control

Gold extended gains from the previous session and jumped to its highest in over a week, back closer to the very important $1300 psychological mark.

On Friday, the US Fed Chair Janet Yellen skipped any mention on monetary policy during a much awaited speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium and did little to revive hopes for additional Fed rate-hike action by the end of this year, eventually helped the non-yielding precious metal to recover sharply from 7-day lows.

Adding to this, concerns over the impact of Hurricane Harvey on the US growth outlook was also seen weighing on the US Dollar through early European session on Monday and further benefitted dollar-denominated commodities, lifting the yellow metal to its highest level since August 18.

On the positioning front, the latest weekly Commitments of Traders report released on Friday, by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that the net bullish bets on Comex gold rose for the sixth straight week to August 22 to the highest level in nine-months.

Investors now turn their focus to the keenly watched US monthly jobs report, popularly known as NFP, along with the US GDP revision, which might influence Fed rate hike expectations and provide some fresh impetus. 

Technical levels to watch

Momentum beyond the $1300 handle could get extended towards $1306-07 area, above which the metal seems all set to aim towards retesting Nov. 2016 swing highs resistance near $1237 level. 

On the flip side, $1293-92 zone now seems to protect immediate downside, which if broken might trigger some profit-taking and drag the commodity towards $1280 important support with some intermediate support near $1288 level.