Gold Technical Analysis: In search of a firm direction, remains vulnerable below 100-DMA

• Gold remains confined in a range for the second straight session.
• The near-term set-up seems tilted in favour of bearish traders.

Following the previous session's intraday pullback from the vicinity of 100-day SMA, or one-month tops, gold was seen oscillating in a narrow trading band through the early North-American session on Thursday.

Looking at the broader picture, the commodity's recent pullback from multi-year tops has been along a descending trend-channel formation held over the past two months or so and points to an established bearish trend.

This coupled with the fact that the metal has struggled to capitalize on the latest recovery move and remained capped below a technically significant moving average further reinforces the near-term bearish bias.

However, mixed technical indicators on hourly/daily charts haven't been supportive of any firm direction and thus, warrant some caution before placing any aggressive bearish bets amid persistent US-China trade uncertainty.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some follow-through selling below the $1465-64 horizontal level before positioning for any subsequent slide back towards challenging the $1452-50 strong near-term support zone.

On the flip side, a sustained move beyond the 100-day SMA barrier, currently near the $1486-87 region, might negate the near-term bearish outlook and lift the commodity back towards the key $1500 psychological mark.

The momentum could further get extended towards testing a resistance marked by the top end of the mentioned descending trend-channel, around the $1506 region. 

Gold daily chart