Gold dives to near 2-week lows, below $1600 mark

• Gold witnessed some aggressive selling for the fourth straight session on Friday.
• A strong pickup in the USD demand was seen as a key factor weighing on the metal.

Gold extended its steep intraday decline and tumbled to near two-week lows, below the $1600 round-figure mark in the last hour.

The precious metal witnessed some aggressive selling during the early North-American session and has now retreated nearly 6%, or over $100, from multi-year tops set on the first day of the current trading week.

The downfall marked the fourth consecutive day of steep declines and seemed rather unaffected by the ongoing rout in the global equity markets, which tends to underpin the commodity's perceived safe-haven status.

Investors seemed to liquidate their bullish positions to raise cash and meet margin calls amid the stock market crash. Adding to this, a strong pickup in the US dollar demand further aggravated the bearish pressure around the dollar-denominated commodity.
It will now be interesting to see if the non-yielding yellow metal is able to attract any buying interest at lower levels or the current slide marks the end of the recent bullish run, setting the stage for a further near-term corrective slide.

Technical levels to watch