Gold edges higher but remains on track for third consecutive week of losses

Gold gained some traction on Friday and eroded part of previous session's sharp losses to the lowest level since mid-March.

Currently trading around $1233 region, cautious trade ahead of the keenly watched US non-farm payrolls data, further reinforced by a sharp drop in the US treasury bond yields, extended some support to the precious metal's safe-haven demand. 

However, a modest greenback recovery, with the key US Dollar Index bouncing off yearly lows, capped seems to keep a lid on any further recovery for the dollar-denominated commodity, gold, at least for the time being. Moreover, growing prospects of an eventual Fed rate-hike action, as early as its June meeting, might also collaborate towards capping additional up-move for the non-yielding yellow metal. 

Hence, it would be interesting to see if the metal is able to register any meaningful recovery or the current leg of recovery would be seen as fresh selling opportunity. 

Later during the NA session, the US monthly jobs report, which is known to infuse a bout of volatility across global financial markets would now influence the commodity's safe-haven demand and provide fresh impetus. Nevertheless, the metal remains on track to register its third consecutive week of losses amid receding geopolitical worries. 

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is pegged near $1238 level, above which a bout of short-covering could lift the metal back towards 200-day SMA near $1250-52 region with some intermediate resistance near $1245 level. On the downside, $1228 level now becomes immediate support to defend, which if broken should accelerate the slide towards 100-day SMA support near $1220 region ahead of $1210 strong horizontal support.