Gold slides further below $1500 mark, losing around 2.5% for the day

• Gold failed to capitalize on the early uptick despite a fresh leg down in equity markets.
• The benchmark 10-year US bond yields jump to 1.2% and exerted some fresh pressure.
• The global rush to hoard cash benefitted the USD and contributed to the selling bias.

Gold extended its sharp intraday slide and weakened farther below the key $1500 psychological mark through the early European session.

The precious metal failed to capitalize on the overnight goodish intraday bounce and an early uptick to the $1546 region. Traders seemed rather unimpressed by a fresh leg down in the global equity markets, which tends to undermine the commodity's perceived safe-haven status.

A strong follow-through rally in the US Treasury bond yields turned out to be one of the key factors that exerted some fresh downward pressure on the non-yielding yellow metal. In fact, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US government bond jumped back to 1.2% on Wednesday.

This coupled with a sudden pickup in the US dollar demand added to the intraday selling bias surrounding the dollar-denominated commodity. The greenback benefitted from its status as the global reserve currency and a rush to hoard cash to ride through the coronavirus crisis.

However, growing concerns over the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic – despite the recent efforts from major central banks and various government measures to offset recession fears – might lend some support to the commodity.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through selling, possibly below the recent swing lows to over one-month lows, around the $1450 region, before positioning for any further near-term depreciating move for the metal.

Technical levels to watch