AUD/USD remains depressed near 0.7040, looks to trade

• The Aussie Dollar stays under pressure near recent lows.
• US-China trade concerns collaborate with the downside.
• Decent support has emerged at 0.7000 so far.

The pick up in the greenback is pouring cold water over the weekly recovery in AUD/USD, dragging it to the area of 0.7040, where some initial contention turned up.

AUD/USD looks to trade

The pair has come under renewed selling pressure on Thursday, trading in fresh 3-day lows around 0.7040 in response to the strong pick up in the demand for the greenback along with fresh concerns on the trade front.

On the latter, earlier news said the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping has been delayed until April at least, alleviating the prevailing optimism around a potential agreement and at the same time weighing on the riskier assets.

In the AU docket, the RBA minutes are next on tap on Tuesday, while the always-key labour market report is expected on March 21.

What to look for around AUD

The broad risk-appetite trends continue to drive the sentiment in the high-beta currencies and the commodity-bloc, where developments in the US-China trade dispute remain the almost exclusive catalyst of the price action. The upcoming RBA minutes (Tuesday) are expected to confirm the shift to a more neutral stance from the central bank, while market participants continue to price in a rate cut at some point in H2 2019, all keeping the medium term bearish outlook on AUD unchanged for the time being.

AUD/USD levels to watch

At the moment the pair is retreating 0.58% at 0.7052 and a break below 0.7003 (low Mar.8) would aim for 0.6907 (monthly low Sep.4 2015) and finally 0.6827 (monthly low Jan.26 2016). On the upside, the next hurdle emerges at 0.7097 (high Mar.13) followed by 0.7125 (55-day SMA) and finally 0.7159 (100-day SMA).