Open interest in gold futures markets remained choppy on Tuesday and shrank by around 1.6K contracts, partially reversing the previous daily build, according to preliminary readings from CME Group. Volume, instead, went up by around 6.7K contracts after two daily drops in a row.

Gold: The $1,660 region holds the downside… for now

Tuesday’s pullback in gold prices came in tandem with shrinking open interest, which hints at the likeliness that a deeper retracement is out of favour, at least in the very near term. Against this, decent contention remains around the $1,660 zone per ounce troy.