Gold holds steady with modest recovery gains, but lacks follow through traction

Gold held on to its modest recovery gains but seemed lacking any strong follow through traction and traded in a narrow range around $1285 level.

The US Dollar retreated after hitting a one-month high and has been one of the key factors lending support to dollar-denominated commodities - like gold. 

Meanwhile, an upward revision of US GDP growth figures for Q2 2017 and the prevalent positive trading sentiment around equity markets did little to lend any support to the precious metal's safe-haven appeal. 

This coupled with renewed optimism over the US President Donald Trump's pro-growth agenda and higher US Treasury bond yields further collaborated towards keeping a lid on the non-yielding yellow metal's modest recovery move from one-month lows touched earlier today. 

Traders now look forward to speeches by FOMC’s members Fischer, George and Bostic for some short-term trading impetus. 

Technical levels to watch

On a sustained recovery beyond $1286 level, a bout of short-covering could lift the metal back towards $1290 level en-route the $1300 handle. Meanwhile, weakness back below $1280 level could get extended back towards $1277-76 support area, below which the metal could accelerate the fall towards $1270 level.