Gold rebounds from multi-month lows, trades around $1,455

• US Dollar Index is posting modest daily losses on Monday.
• Gold struggles to take advantage of the sour market mood.
• US Pres. Trump's and FOMC Chairman Powell's speeches will be watched this week.

After posting its largest weekly percentage drop of the year and erasing more than $50, the troy ounce of the precious metal remained under pressure on Monday with the XAU/USD pair slumping to its lowest level since early August at $1,452. With the trading volume thinning out in the second half of the day, the pair staged a technical correction and was last seen trading at $1,455, losing 0.2% on a daily basis.

The broad-based USD strength and the upbeat market mood on hopes of the United States and China mutually retracting tariffs as part of the phase-one of the trade deal last week weighed heavily on the pair. The 10-year US Treasury bond yield rose more than 13% and Wall Street's main indexes touched fresh all-time highs to reflect the dominance of risk-on flows.

Eyes on Trump and Powell

Although the US bond market is closed due to Veterans Day holiday and major global equity indexes are posting modest losses, gold struggled to find demand as investors seem to be refraining from taking large positions ahead of this week's key event.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump will be delivering a speech at a luncheon hosted by the Economic Club of New York and investors will be looking for fresh clues regarding the US-China trade dispute. On Wednesday and Thursday, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Chairman Jerome Powell will be testifying before the Joint Economic Committee and the Budget Committee.

Technical levels to watch for