Gold hangs near 3-week lows, US GDP in focus

   •  Broad-based USD strength and waning safe-haven demand exerting pressure.
   •  Advance US Q3 GDP to drive sentiment on the last trading day of the week.

Gold maintained its offered tone and dropped to fresh 3-week lows during the early European session on Friday.

Against the backdrop of waning demand for traditional safe-haven assets, persistent US Dollar buying interest was further seen weighing on dollar-denominated commodities - like gold.

Adding to this, a goodish pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, amid speculations that the next Fed Chair could be more hawkish, was also seen driving flows away from the non-yielding precious metal.

Meanwhile, a follow-through technical selling, after yesterday's bearish break back below 100-day SMA, might limit any immediate upside, with a slide back towards monthly lows support now seems a distinct possibility. 

Today's key focus would be on the advance US Q3 GDP growth numbers and would now act as a key catalyst for the commodity's move on the last trading day of the week. 

Technical levels to watch

Sustained weakness below $1260 level is likely to accelerate the slide towards $1256 intermediate support ahead of $1250 area. On the upside, any meaningful recovery attempts might now confront fresh supply near the $1275-76 region (100-day SMA), which if cleared might trigger a short-covering bounce back towards $1283-84 supply zone.