- US Pres. Trump says he is yet to decide on rolling back the accumulated tariffs.
- US Dollar Index gains more than 1% this week.
- RBA lowers GDP growth forecast for 2019 to 2.25%.
Despite the broad-based USD strength throughout the week, the AUD/USD pair didn’t have a difficult time holding above the 0.6900 handle as the heightened hopes of the United States and China simultaneously reducing import tariffs as part of the phase-one of the trade deal helped antipodeans find demand.
US-China trade agreement not a done deal
However, with US President Donald Trump noting that he hasn’t yet agreed to roll back tariffs on Friday, the AUD lost its traction and the pair slumped to its lowest level in more than a week. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.6851, adding 0.65% on a daily basis.
Earlier in the day, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in its quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy (SoMP) reiterated that the board is prepared to ease the policy further if needed and lowered the 2019 growth forecast down to 2.25%.
On the other hand, the greenback continued to outperform its major rivals with the US Dollar Index climbing to its highest level since mid-October at 98.40. As of writing, the index was a tad below that level, adding 0.27% on the day and 1.3% on the week. The only data from the US on Friday showed that consumer confidence improved slightly in early November but was largely ignored by the market participants.
- US: UoM Consumer Confidence Index edged up to 95.7 in November vs. 95.9 expected
There won’t be any macroeconomic data releases from Australia on Monday and the US investors will be observing the Veterans Day, suggesting that the market action will likely remain subdued.
Technical levels to consider
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