Gold continues to trade near multi-month highs above $1340

• Wall Street starts the day flat.
• 10-year T-bond yield turns positive on the day in the early NA session.
• US Dollar Index stays in the green ahead of FOMC.

The precious metal extended its rally into a fifth straight day on Wednesday and touched its highest level since late April near $1347. As of writing, the XAU/USD pair was up 0.2% on a daily basis at $1344.

The fact that the pair broke above the critical $1325 resistance area earlier this week helped the pair to gather a strong bullish momentum and triggered a technical upsurge. Furthermore, with major currencies struggling to find demand amid gloıbal growth concerns and uncertainties surrounding Brexit and the U.S. - China trade conflict, gold continued to find demand as a safer investment alternative.

Meanwhile, before the FOMC publishes the minutes of its last meeting, the US Dollar Index is clinging to small daily gains near 96.60, making it difficult for the pair to push higher toward $1350 for the time being. Although there were no macroeconomic data releases from the U.S. that could have helped the USD gain traction, a rebound witnessed in the 10-year T-bond yields in the last couple of hours seems to be supporting the buck.

Previewing the event, “We will be interested to hear the different stances within the Fed on further hikes now it has hinted it is ‘patient’ about raising rates again. Furthermore, we will monitor any insights it might have on how it plans the balance sheet reduction," Danske Bank analysts said.

• FOMC Minutes Preview: Major Banks expecting a reiteration of a dovish message.

Technical levels to consider