Gold ignores US data, trades at fresh daily highs above $1,650

• Durable Goods Orders in US declined less than expected in January.
• US economy is seen expanding 2.1% in Q4 as expected. 
• 10-year US T-bond yield slumps to fresh all-time lows near 1.26%.

The XAU/USD pair continues to trade in the positive territory in the early trading hours of the American session as USD struggles to capitalize on the macroeconomic data releases from the US. As of writing, the pair was up 0.82% on the day at $1,653.

Risk aversion and USD weakness drive gold's action

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis' second estimate for the annualized GDP growth in the fourth quarter stayed unchanged at 2.1% as expected on Thursday. Additionally, the US Census Bureau reported that Durable Goods Orders in January declined by 0.2% to better analysts' estimate for a decrease of 1.5%. 

Nevertheless, the relentless fall witnessed in the US Treasury bond yields didn't allow the greenback to find demand after the data. At the moment, the 10-year US T-bond yield is at a fresh all-time low of 1.26%, erasing 6.2% on a daily basis, and the US Dollar Index is down 0.56% at 98.59.

Meanwhile, reflecting the intense flight-to-safety, Wall Street's main indexes started the day deep in the negative territory to help the safe-haven gold preserve its strength. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite opened thge day more-than-2% lower.

Technical levels to watch for