AUD/USD surrenders a major part of early gains to 3-week tops

   “¢   A modest USD rebound stalls the dovish FOMC/upbeat Aussie data-led bullish move.
   “¢   Risk-off mood/upbeat US economic data remained supportive of the USD recovery.
   “¢   The 0.7100 handle to act as a key pivotal point for the pair’s near-term trajectory.

The AUD/USD pair extended its steady intraday pull-back from three-week tops and has now moved within striking distance of session lows, around the 0.7125-20 region.

The pair initially built on the overnight sharp rebound from weekly lows, triggered by dovish Fed outlook, and touched an intraday high level of 0.7168 during the Asian session on Thursday following an unexpected downtick in the Aussie unemployment rate.

The bullish momentum, however, started losing steam, rather witnessed some profit-taking amid a modest US Dollar rebound. This coupled with deteriorating global risk sentiment further drove flows away from perceived riskier currencies – like the Aussie.

With investors looking past the latest FOMC monetary policy update, worries over a disorderly Brexit and uncertainty over US-China trade talks took its toll on investors’ appetite for riskier assets and was evident from a sea of red across equity markets.  

Meanwhile, today’s better than expected US economic releases – stronger Philly Fed manufacturing index and a larger drop in weekly jobless claims, remained supportive of the attempted USD rebound and further collaborated to the pair’s weaker tone.

It would now be interesting to see if the pair is able to attract any meaningful buying interest at lower levels or the current pull-back marks the end of the recent up-move, which will be confirmed if bulls struggle to defend the 0.7100 round figure mark.

Technical levels to watch

Below the mentioned handle, leading to a subsequent break below the 0.7085 horizontal zone, the pair is likely to accelerate the slide further towards 0.7055 intermediate support en-route the key 0.70 psychological mark.  

On the flip side, the 0.7165-70 region now seems to have emerged as an immediate resistance, above which the pair is likely to surpass the 0.7200 handle and aim towards testing its next hurdle near the 0.7225-30 region.