Gold struggling to register any meaningful recovery, hangs near 8-week lows

Gold struggled to build on previous session's rebound from near 2-month low and traded with mild negative bias for the sixth consecutive session, just below 100-day SMA.

Currently hovering around $1221 region, the precious metal was seen consolidating in a narrow trading band amid increasing odds for a definite June Fed rate-hike action. Higher interest-rates in the US tend to drive flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal and should continue to contribute towards capping any meaningful recovery from the lowest level since mid-March.

However, a mild US Dollar pull-back, led by retracing US treasury bond yields, was seen boosting demand for dollar-denominated commodities - like gold. Adding to this, a slight negative opening in the European equity indices also supported the metal's safe-haven appeal and seems to have limited further downslide, at least for the time being. 

   •  US Dollar sidelined around 99.30

Today's US economic docket lacks any top-tier data and hence, the commodity remains at the mercy of broader market risk sentiment and the US bond yield dynamics.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate support is pegged near $1215-14 area (yesterday's low), below which the metal is likely to accelerate the slide towards $1205 strong horizontal support, with some intermediate support near $1210 level. 

On the flip side, any recovery attempt beyond $1225 region (100-day SMA) might continue to confront strong hurdle near $1229-30 area, which if cleared might trigger a bout of short-covering and lift the metal back towards $1236 resistance en-route its next major barrier near $1240-42 region.