AUD/USD struggles near monthly lows, just above 0.6900 handle

• RBA rate cut speculations continued weighing on the Australian Dollar.
• The recent USD bullish run further collaborated to the pair’s downfall.
• Bulls failed to gain any respite from renewed trade-related optimism.  

The AUD/USD pair struggled to register any meaningful recovery and held well within the striking distance of over one-month lows set on Friday.

Against the backdrop of rising speculations that the RBA will move to cut interest rates sooner rather than later, the prevalent bullish sentiment surrounding the US Dollar contributed to the pair’s recent pullback from near three-month tops.

The already stronger greenback got an additional boost on Friday after the preliminary US GDP report showed that the US economy expanded at an annualized paced of 2.1% during the second quarter of 2019 as compared to 1.8% growth expected.

The data further lowered chances of an aggressive interest rate cut move by the Fed at its upcoming meeting on July 30-31 and continued exerting downward pressure on the pair, with bulls failing to gain any respite from renewed trade-related optimism.

Heading into this week’s key event risk, investors now seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bearish bets and helped the pair to find some support near the 0.6900 round figure mark amid absent relevant market-moving economic releases on Monday.

The China-proxy Australian Dollar will further take cues from the incoming trade-related headlines as the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin prepare to meet their Chinese counterparts later this week.  

Technical levels to watch