Gold remains confined in a narrow trading band, around $1475 region

Gold edged higher on Thursday, albeit lacked any strong follow-through and remained confined well within the recent trading range.

A combination of factors underpinned demand for perceived safe-haven assets on Thursday and helped the precious metal to recover farther from weekly lows set in the previous session. The recovery came after the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Traders remain on the sidelines

Although Trump is likely to survive a trial in the GOP-led Senate next month, a slight increase in uncertainty weighed on the investors' sentiment. This was evident from the prevalent cautious mood and reinforced by a softer tone surrounding the US Treasury bond yields, which extended some support to the non-yielding yellow metal.

Adding to this, a subdued US dollar price action also played its part in providing a minor lift to the dollar-denominated commodity. The uptick, however, lacked any strong bullish conviction, indicating that investors remained on the sidelines and are likely to wait for a fresh catalyst before positioning for the next leg of a directional move.

Moving ahead, market participants now look forward to some second-tier US data for a fresh impetus. Thursday's US economic docket features the release of the usual initial weekly jobless claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, which along with existing home sales data might produce some short-term trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch