Gold Steadies Below $1750 After Clinching Accord On Greece's Debt

Precious gold steadied on Tuesday trading below $1750 levels after eurogroup finance ministers had reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday to release Greece's coming installments that are massively needed to keep the debt-strapped economy far from bankruptcy.

The shiny metal did not respond positively or negatively to the upbeat agreement which boosted the euro to near one-month high versus the U.S. dollar as it remained range-bounded in the same levels seen at the end of last week.

Gold remains unable to breakthrough resistance near $1756 as it failed to drop breach Friday's high of $1752.06, where it is currently trading around $1749.70. The trading range for today is expected among the key support at $1738.00 and key resistance now at $1775.00.

Yesterday, euro area finance ministers agreed with the IMF on Greece's coming fiscal path as they agreed to reduce Greece’s interest rates and gave it more time to pay back aid loans.

The deal included making the debt targets for Greece at 124 percent of GDP in 2020 and below 110 percent in 2022 in addition to giving it an additional 15 years to repay loans, while cancelling the proposal of cutting the total debt owed.

With such a deal Greece would be able to receive its coming disbursements worth 34.4 billion euros on December 13.

On the other hand, eyes will continue to track the debate about the U.S. fiscal cliff when the White House and Congress meet this week to avert spending cuts and tax hikes worth $607 billion waiting for the world's no.1 economy in January.

"We remain confident that we can achieve an agreement. Work has to be done. Work is continuing to take place," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.

In the FX market, the dollar resumed its drop versus a basket of major currencies for a fourth consecutive session, as depicted by the Dollar Index which dipped to a low of 80.03 from the day's opening of 80.19, noting that the breach of 80.50 levels, which represents SMA 100 level on the daily charts, last week paved the way for the dollar to continue its bearish direction.

Crude oil for January's delivery rose to trade around $88.10 a barrel compared with the day's opening level of $87.81.