Gold extends bearish slide, hits fresh five week lows

Gold traded with bearish bias for the fourth consecutive session and dropped to the lowest level in five weeks on Thursday. 

Spot prices accelerated recent bearish slide and broken below the important 100-day SMA support Wednesday after ADP report showed a surge in private-sector job creation during February. The latest labor market report further bolstered March Fed rate-hike bets and weighed on the non-yielding precious metal. Surging bond yields also underpinned the US Dollar demand and dented demand for dollar-denominated commodities - like gold. 

Investors' on Thursday would remain focus on the ECB monetary policy meeting, which might trigger some volatility in the markets and lend some support to the yellow metal's safe-haven appeal. 

Buyers, however, would continue to maintain cautious stance ahead of Friday's key NFP data and the FOMC meeting next week, which would act as a catalyst for the commodity's next leg of directional move.

Technical levels to watch

A follow through weakness below the $1200 psychological mark support should continue dragging the metal further towards $1195 intermediate support, en-route $1188 strong horizontal support. On the upside, any recovery attempt might now confront resistance at 100-day SMA support break-point near $1210 region, above which the recovery could get extended towards $1217-18 resistance zone.