Gold consolidates in a range, below $1950 level

Gold lacked any firm directional bias and was seen oscillating in a narrow trading band, just below the $1950 region through the early European session.

The precious metal failed to capitalize on the previous day's positive move of around $30 and remained capped below one-week-old resistance near the $1951 horizontal level. The overnight bounce was sponsored by the emergence of some fresh selling around the US dollar, which tends to underpin the dollar-denominated commodity.

The greenback weakened across the board amid a strong pickup in the shared currency after the European Central Bank (ECB) expressed confidence in the EU's economic outlook. The ECB is scheduled to announce its monetary policy decision later this Thursday. This, in turn, might influence the USD price dynamics and provide some impetus.

This coupled with a fresh leg down in the US equity futures extended some additional support to the precious metal's safe-haven status. The anti-risk flow was further reinforced by a weaker tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields, which was also cited as one of the key factors benefitting the non-yielding yellow metal.

Despite the supporting factors, the upside remains capped, at least for the time being, warranting some caution for bullish traders. This makes it prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before positioning for any further near-term appreciating move, possibly towards the next major hurdle near the $1970-71 region.

Technical levels to watch