Gold stalls post-NFP recovery near $1230 barrier

Gold quickly reversed headline NFP-led knee-jerk reaction to session lows but seemed struggling to clear its immediate barrier near $1230 region.

The precious metal touched a session low near $1217 level after the highly anticipated US monthly jobs report showed that the US economy added 222K new jobs during the month of June. Looking at the finer details, the unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.4%, while average earnings showed a lacklustre growth of 0.2% during the reported month.

Today's mixed jobs report added fuel to concerns over weaker wage growth led sluggish inflationary pressure, which might now hinder the Federal Reserve's path for monetary policy normalization. The same was evident from a sharp retracement in the US Treasury bond yields and was seen benefitting the non-yielding yellow metal. 

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Meanwhile, the US Dollar managed to attract some buying interest at lower levels, which eventually kept a lid on any further up-move for the dollar-denominated commodity. With the key NFP data out of the way, global bond yield dynamics would regain its dominant role in determining the metal's movement through NY trading session.

Technical levels to watch

On a sustained buying interest beyond $1230 immediate resistance, the metal is likely to extend the recovery back towards the very important 200-day SMA hurdle near $1233-34 region before attempting a move towards $1240-41 resistance area. 

Conversely, decisive weakness below $1218-17 region would turn the commodity vulnerable to aim towards testing the very important $1200 handle with some intermediate support near $1207-06 horizontal area.