Gold sits near 4-month tops, modest USD rebound capping gains

Gold traded with a mild positive bias for the fifth consecutive session and remained within striking distance of 4-month tops, touched in the previous session. 

The precious metal built on its strong up-move from December's near 5-month lows and continued benefitting from the recent US Dollar slump, despite growing expectations for a gradual Fed monetary policy tightening through 2018

Even expectations of tighter monetary policies from the BOJ and ECB did little to dampen demand for the non-yielding yellow metal, with the prevalent strong USD bearish sentiment supportive of the strong bullish momentum for the dollar-denominated commodity. 

Bulls now seemed taking a breather just ahead of 2017 daily closing highs resistance near $1349 region and the up-move was being capped by a modest greenback recovery attempt. In absence of any major market moving economic releases, the USD price dynamics would continue to act as an exclusive driver of the commodity's momentum on Tuesday.

Technical levels to watch

Any up-move beyond $1344 level is likely to confront resistance near $1349 area ahead of the $1357 region (2017 yearly tops). On the flip side, $1335 level now seems to act as an immediate support, which if broken might prompt some profit-taking back towards $1328 intermediate level en-route $1322 horizontal support.