Gold erases gains after White House denies Cohn's resignation rumors

The precious metal gathered strength against the greenback in the early NA session amid market rumors of Gary Cohn, the director of the White House's National Economic Council and former president of Goldman Sachs, resigning. The XAU/USD pair leaped to its 6-day peak at $1290.10 but failed to extend its gains as the rumors were quickly denied by the White House. As of writing, the pair was trading at $1285, up $1 on the day.

Today's rumors followed a New York Times article from Wednesday, which claimed that Gary Cohn was described by several people close to him as “disgusted” and “deeply upset” by the president’s response to violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. "The markets would crash if top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn resigns," Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at Yale School of Management, said on CNBC's Squawk Box.

After falling to mid-93s on the risk aversion, the US Dollar Index started to retrace its losses and is now at 93.60, gaining 0.2% on the day. Despite the greenback's recovery, the pair remains in the positive area as the major equity indexes struggle to erase their losses with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 indexes both losing 0.4% at the moment.

Dallas Fed President Kaplan's and Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari's speeches will be looked upon for fresh impetus later in the session.

Technical outlook

The CCI indicator on the daily graph is approaching the 100 handle, suggesting that the bullish momentum is building up in the near-term. The pair could face the initial hurdle at $1290/91 (daily high/Aug. 11 high), $1300 and $1306 (Nov. 3, 2016, high). On the downside, supports could be seen at $1271 (20-DMA), $1261 (Aug. 9 low) and $1251 (Aug. 8 low).

Today's data from the U.S.

• US: Industrial production rose 0.2% in July following an increase of 0.4% in June
• US: Weekly initial claims was 232,000, a decrease of 12,000 from previous week
• Philly Fed: Manufacturing conditions in the region continued to advance in August