Gold recovers from post-ADP swing lows, back closer to 7-week tops

Gold held weaker through early NA session on Wednesday and refreshed session lows near the $1262 region, albeit quickly recovered thereafter. 

A modest US Dollar recovery, post-ADP report on the US private sector employment, was seen weighing on dollar-denominated commodities and dragged the precious metal to fresh session lows near $1263 region. 

According to the report, private sector employers added 178K new jobs during the month of July, missing consensus estimates pointing to a reading of 185K. The positive surprise came from a sharp upward revision of last month's reading, which now shows 191K new jobs added as against 158K reported earlier and provided a much needed respite for the greenback. 

   •  US: Private sector employment increased by 178,000 jobs from June to July - ADP

However, dip buying seems to have emerged at lower levels as investors remained skeptic over prospects of any additional Fed rate hike action in 2017. This coupled with continued US political uncertainty and the prevalent cautious environment continued lending support to the commodity's safe-haven appeal.

Technical levels to watch

Currently trading around $1267 region, sustained move back above $1270 level now seems to lift the metal even beyond $1275 region (yesterday's swing highs) towards its next major hurdle near $1279-80 region. On the downside, $1262-60 region remains an immediate strong support to defend, which if broken could extend the corrective slide towards the very important 200-day SMA support near $1251-50 region.