AUD/NZD: RBA minutes, Australian data trigger pullback from the day’s high

• RBA minute’s “significant uncertainties” and sluggish Australian housing market numbers triggered AUD/NZD pullback.
• Overall strength remains less affected due to risk-on.

The AUD/NZD pair slipped nearly 15 pips from the intra-day high to 1.0360 just after the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary policy meeting minutes and the Australian house price index released on early Tuesday. The pair was earlier taking advantage of risk-on sentiment amid no-deal Brexit, market support for easy monetary policy from the Fed and soft New Zealand consumer survey results.

The Australian Dollar (AUD) weakened across the board after RBA minutes and housing numbers raised difficulties for the Aussie buyers. The RBA minutes said that the central-bank marked significant uncertainties while giving room to either side monetary policy changes depended on incoming data during its latest meeting. The house price index figures for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2018, on the other hand, dropped to -2.4% versus -2.0% market consensus and -1.5% prior. It should also be noted that the YoY housing figures were more disappointing as they slumped -5.0% against -0.4% forecast and -1.9% earlier.

Earlier during the day, Westpac released New Zealand consumer survey result for the first quarter of 2019. The consumer sentiment outcome wasn’t a welcome one as it lagged behind 109.1 prior to 103.8.

Pair has been on recovery mode backed by Aussie’s risk-on demand since Friday after the British parliament rejected no-deal Brexit and favored an extension to March 29 deadline. Adding to the sentiment were expectations of dovish monetary policy outlook by the US Federal Reserve at Wednesday’s appearance.

Looking forward, traders may now concentrate on risk sentiment to determine immediate market moves. Among them, Brexit, US-China trade talks and expectations surrounding FOMC could grab the headlines.

AUD/NZD Technical Analysis

An eight-week-long descending trend-line continues to become strong upside resistance at 1.0400, break of which could accelerate the moves toward current month high near 1.0450 and then to another downward sloping resistance-line, at 1.0500.

During the pullback, 1.0340 and 1.0320 may try challenging sellers, if not then chances of witnessing 1.0290 again on the chart can’t be denied.