Gold plummets back closer to 200-DMA support

   •  Weighed down heavily by the ongoing USD upsurge to fresh YTD peaks.
   •  A goodish pickup in the US bond yields adds to the downward pressure.
   •  Cautious mood, ahead of Trump's announcement does little to lend support.

Gold broke down of its European session consolidation phase and tumbled to 3-day lows, near the $1306 region in the last hour.

Despite the nervousness ahead of the US President Donald Trump's planned announcement on the Iran nuclear deal, a strong appreciating move in the US Dollar kept exerting downward pressure on dollar-denominated commodities - like gold.

This coupled with a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, supported by rising speculations that the Fed might raise interest rates faster than currently priced in the market, further dented demand for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Meanwhile, the current negative trading sentiment around equity markets, which tends to underpin demand for traditional safe-haven assets, did little to lend any support and stall the precious metal's downfall back closer to the very important 200-day SMA.

It would now be interesting to see if the commodity is once again able to attract fresh buying interest near technically important moving average support or resumes with its recent decent from $1365 level, touched on April 11. 

Technical levels to watch

Bulls will try and defend the 200-DMA support, currently near the $1305 region, which if broken is likely to accelerate the fall towards the $1300 handle before the metal eventually drops to test $1294-93 support area.

On the flip side, $1310 level now becomes immediate hurdle and is followed by resistance near the $1314-15 region, above which a bout of short-covering has the potential to lift the commodity further towards 100-day SMA barrier near the $1323-24 region.