Gold hangs near weekly lows, below $1565 level

• The prevalent risk-on mood continues to exert pressure on gold.
• A goodish pickup in the US bond yields adds to the selling bias.
• Stronger USD does little to impress bulls or lend any support.

Gold edged lower for the second consecutive session on Wednesday and is currently placed near the lower end of its weekly trading range, around the $1564-65 region.

The precious metal failed to capitalize on the previous session's late bounce and met with some fresh supply on Wednesday amid a positive mood around equity markets, which tends to undermine demand for perceived safe-haven assets.

Gold weighed down by a combination of factors

The risk-on flows led to a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, which further played their part in exerting some additional pressure on the non-yielding yellow metal. Meanwhile, the prevailing bullish sentiment surrounding the US dollar did little to lend any support to the dollar-denominated commodity.

However, the fact that concerns over the economic impact of the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus remained, investors' reluctance to place any aggressive bearish bets might eventually turn out to be the only factor that might help limit deeper losses.

Moving ahead, market participants now look forward to the Fed Chair Jerome Powell's second day of testimony, this time before the Senate Housing Committee, for some short-term trading impetus amid absent relevant market moving economic releases.

Technical levels to watch