Gold steadies around 100-DMA, central banks in focus

   •  Struggles to extend recovery further beyond 100-DMA.
   •  FOMC, BOE & NFP hold the key.

Gold lacked any firm directional bias and seesawed between tepid gains/minor losses through the early European session on Tuesday. 

The precious metal struggled to gain any follow through traction and consolidated overnight recovery back above 100-day SMA hurdle. A combination of diverging factors has failed to provide any fresh impetus to the commodity. 

The prevalent cautious environment, further reinforced by sliding US Treasury bond yields, extended some support to the non-yielding metal. However, a modest pickup in the US Dollar demand kept a lid on any meaningful up-move for dollar-denominated commodities - like gold, and has eventually led to a subdued/range-bound price action. 

With the BoJ monetary policy decision failing to trigger any meaningful momentum, investors attention shift to other central bank meetings (FOMC and BoE), along with the likely announcement of the next Fed Chair and key economic releases (NFP) due this week. 

Technical levels to watch

Momentum above $1280 level is likely to confront strong resistance near the $1283-84 region, above which the metal is likely to dart towards $1290 supply zone. On the flip side, $1273 level now seems to protect the immediate downside, which if broken could accelerate the slide towards $1267-66 horizontal zone en-route $1260 important support.