Open interest in gold futures markets rose for the second session in a row on Friday, this time by just 270 contracts according to preliminary readings from CME Group. Volume, instead, extended the ongoing choppiness and shrank by around 26.8K contracts.

Gold appears supported around $1,680

Gold prices retested the upper end of the range near $1,730 on Friday, just to give away part of those gains afterwards. The move was accompanied by a small increase in open interest and a marked retracement in volume, which could allow for some extra gains in the very near term although always within the prevailing range bound theme. In the meantime, the $1,680 region still emerges as decent contention.