AUD/USD tests 0.7700 as DXY advances to multi-week tops above 99.50

• AUD/USD remains on the back foot on Monday.
• Greenback continues to outperform its rivals in the early American session.
• Upbeat data from Australia failed to help AUD at the start of the week.

After climbing to fresh multi-year highs at 0.7821 on Wednesday, the AUD/USD pair edged lower in the second half of the previous week and extended its slide on Monday. As of writing, the pair was trading at its lowest level in six days, losing 0.7% at 0.7703.

DXY rally continues on Monday

Earlier in the day, the report published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Retail Sales in November increased by 7.1% on a monthly basis. However, this upbeat data failed to help AUD/USD gain traction as the USD started the new week on a strong footing.

Following the sharp upsurge on the back of rising US Treasury bond yields, the US Dollar Index preserved its bullish momentum on Monday and touched its highest level in nearly 20 days at 90.55. In the absence of significant fundamental drivers, the risk-averse market environment seems to be allowing the greenback to continue to outperform its rivals as a safe-haven. At the moment, the S&P 500 Futures are down 0.68% on the day and the DXY is up 0.5% at 90.54.

The US economic docket won’t be featuring any significant macroeconomic data releases in the remainder of the day. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan will be speaking at 1700 and 2300 GMT, respectively.

Technical levels to watch for