Gold falls to 1-1/2 week lows, 100-DMA support around $1220 level

   •  Resurgent USD demand/positive US bond yields prompted fresh selling.
   •  Signs of stability in equity markets further undermine safe-haven demand.
   •  Traders now eye US consumer confidence index for short-term impetus.

Gold kept losing ground through the mid-European session and fell to 1-1/2 week lows in the last hour.

The commodity extended Friday's retracement slide from fresh three-month tops and remained under some selling pressure for the second consecutive session on Tuesday. 

A goodish pickup in the greenback demand, with the key US Dollar Index hitting over 2-1/2 month tops, was seen as one of the key factors undermining demand for the dollar-denominated commodity.

Adding to this, a modest uptick in the US Treasury bond yields exerted some additional downward pressure on the non-yielding yellow-metal and further collaborated to the ongoing downfall. 

Meanwhile, investors looked past overnight report, which renewed worries about an escalation of the US-China trade war, and an effort by equities to stabilize also did little to support the precious metal's safe-haven status. 

Currently hovering around 100-day SMA support, around the $1220 region, market participants now look forward to the release of Conference Board's US consumer confidence index in order to grab some short-term opportunities during the early North-American session.

Technical levels to watch

A follow-through selling has the potential to continue dragging the commodity further towards $1215 intermediate support en-route the $1211-10 region. On the flip side, any attempted move back above $1226 area now seems to confront resistance near the $1232-34 region, above which the metal is likely to aim towards surpassing the $1240-41 supply zone.