AUD/USD climbs back closer to 2-month tops/200-DMA barrier in post-NFP trading action

   “¢   The US economy added 304K new jobs in Jan., surpassing the most optimistic estimates.
   “¢   A downward revision of the previous month’s reading/weaker wage growth disappoints.
   “¢   US-China trade optimism remains supportive ahead of the US ISM manufacturing PMI.

The AUD/USD pair managed to recover its early lost ground and has now moved within striking distance of near two-month tops, set in the previous session in the post-NFP trading action.

With investors looking past today’s disappointing Chinese manufacturing PMI, the pair started recovering from an intraday low level of 0.7237 and was being supported by a subdued US Dollar price action.

The greenback lost some additional ground after the latest US monthly jobs report showed that the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked higher to 4.0% in January and wage growth data fell short of market expectations.

This coupled with a sharp downward revision of the previous month’s job addition, now at 222K as against 312K reported earlier, largely offset today’s stellar headline NFP print and provided an additional boost.  

Today’s US economic docket also features the release of ISM manufacturing PMI, which might further collaborate towards producing some meaningful trading opportunities on the last day of the week.  

Meanwhile, the latest optimism over a possible resolution of the US-China trade disputes might continue to underpin the China-proxy Australian Dollar and hence, a decisive break through the very important 200-day SMA, or the 0.7300 handle, now looks a distinct possibility.

Technical levels to watch