Gold trades with modest gains around $1490 level, lacks follow-through

• North-Korean headlines prompt some safe-haven buying on Wednesday.
• The upside seemed limited, rather capped amid US-China trade optimism.

Gold traded with a positive bias through the early European session on Wednesday and recovered a part of the previous session's slide to over four-week lows.
 
Continuous improvement in the global risk sentiment - supported by growing optimism over the resumption of the US-China trade talks - has been acting as a key factor behind the precious metal's recent corrective slide from multi-year tops.

Geopolitical news provided immediate respite

However, the latest news report that North Korea test-fired a super-large multiple rocket launcher on September 10 extended some support to Gold's perceived safe-haven status and helped snap four consecutive days of losing streak on Wednesday.
 
The uptick, however, lacked any strong bullish conviction and remained capped below the key $1500 psychological mark amid a follow-through pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, which tends to drive flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal.
 
This coupled with the latest positive trade-related development, wherein China reportedly offered to buy more US agricultural products in exchange for a delay in tariffs, further collaborated towards keeping a lid on any meaningful recovery for the metal.
 
Moving ahead, Wednesday's US economic docket - highlighting the release of Producer Price Index (PPI) - will influence the US Dollar price dynamics and produce some short-term trading opportunities around the dollar-denominated commodity - Gold.
 
From a technical perspective, the commodity's inability to attract any meaningful buying interest now seems to suggest that the near-term bearish bias might still be far from being over and support prospects for a further depreciating move.
 
Hence, any subsequent recovery back towards the $1500 handle runs the risk of meeting with some fresh supply, rather seen as an opportunity to initiate some fresh bearish positions for an eventual breakthrough mid-August swing lows.

Technical levels to watch