Gold little changed, hovering around $1200 mark ahead of US jobs report

   •  A modest uptick in the USD/US bond yields capped any meaningful up-move.
   •  Risk-off mood underpins safe-haven status and might limit any downside.
   •  Investors eye US monthly jobs report for some fresh directional impetus.

Gold traded with a mild negative bias on Friday, albeit lacked any firm directional bias and oscillated in a narrow range below the key $1200 psychological mark.

After yesterday's good two-way price action, the precious metal now seems to have stabilized a bit as investors remained cautious ahead of the highly anticipated US monthly jobs report (NFP), due later in the day.

The key focus will be on the wage growth data, where a stronger reading will reinforce market expectations that the Fed might continue raising interest rates and eventually drive flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal.

Meanwhile, a slightly weaker reading seems unlikely to be a game changer for the US Dollar and the reaction might turn out to be rather short-lived, which might eventually keep a lid on any runaway rally for the dollar-denominated commodity.

Meanwhile, a combination of diverging forces failed to provide any meaningful impetus and led to a subdued/range-bound price action through the early European session on Friday.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate support is pegged near the $1195 level, below which the commodity is likely to accelerate the slide towards $1189-88 intermediate zone en-route the $1180 region. On the flip side, momentum beyond $1203-04 area might continue to confront fresh supply near the $1208-10 region, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering rally towards $1222-24 supply zone.