Gold retreats from near 1-month tops, slide further below $1300 mark

   •  Trump’s positive trade-related comments prompt some profit-taking.
   •  Improving risk sentiment dampens the commodity’s safe-haven status.
   •  A subdued USD demand might help limit the downside, at least for now.

Gold failed to capitalize on the early uptick to near one-month tops and was now seen retreating farther below the key $1300 psychological mark. 

Currently placed at the lower end of its daily trading range, around the $1297 region, the precious metal has now eroded a part of the previous session's goodish up-move that came after China announced a retaliatory tariff-hike on $60 billion worth of US goods.

However, some positive comments by the US President Donald Trump, saying that he feels the Chinese trade negotiations will be successful, helped eased concerns about a full-blown US-China trade war and dampened the precious metal safe-haven status.

This coupled with a modest uptick in the US Treasury bond yields further collaborated towards driving flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal, albeit a subdued US Dollar price action might lend some support to the dollar-denominated commodity and helped limit deeper losses.

There aren't any major market moving US economic releases due on Tuesday and hence, the broader market risk sentiment might continue to play a key role in influencing the commodity's price action/produce some short-term trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch