AUD/USD clings to modest gains, lacks follow-through beyond mid-0.6000s

• AUD/USD gains some positive traction amid a strong recovery in the global risk sentiment.
• Coronavirus jitters continue to benefit the USD’s safe-haven status and capped the upside.

The AUD/USD pair traded with a mild positive bias through the Asian session, albeit lacked any strong follow-through beyond mid-0.6000s.

The pair gained some positive traction on the first day of a new trading week and for now, seems to have snapped four consecutive days of losing streak amid a goodish recovery in the global risk sentiment.

A decline in fatalities from the COVID-19 boosted investors’ confidence and the same was evident from strong gains in the US equity futures, which provided a modest lift to the perceived riskier aussie.

However, persistent worries over the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continue benefitting the US dollar’s perceived safe-haven status and turned out to be one of the key factors capping gains.

The market concerns were further fueled by Friday’s US monthly jobs report, which showed that the economy lost 701K jobs in March and the unemployment rate spiked to 4.4% from 3.5% previous.

Hence, it will be prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before confirming that the recent pullback from levels beyond the 0.6200 mark is already over and positioning for any further positive move.

In the absence of any major market-moving economic releases, developments surrounding the coronavirus saga might continue to influence the USD price dynamics and provide some meaningful trading impetus.

Short-term technical outlook