AUD/USD traded with modest losses, holds above mid-0.6700s

• Concerns over US-China trade disputes exert some downward pressure on Thursday.
• The USD fails to preserve FOMC minutes-led up-move and helped limit the downside.
• Traders eye US PMIs for some impetus ahead of Powell’s scheduled speech on Friday.

The AUD/USD pair traded with a mild negative bias through the early European session on Thursday, albeit has managed to rebound around 15-pips from daily lows.
 
The pair continued with its struggle to move back above the 0.6800 handle on Wednesday and started losing intraday positive momentum after minutes of the July FOMC meeting tempered expectations of aggressive rate cuts, which provided a minor lift to the US Dollar.

Traders take cues from the USD price dynamics

This coupled with persistent concerns over US-China trade disputes held investors from buying the China-proxy Australian Dollar and further collaborated towards capping gains, rather exerted some fresh downward pressure during the Asian session on Thursday.
 
Meanwhile, the greenback failed to capitalize on its up-move and witnessed some fresh selling in the last hour and turned out to be one of the key factors limiting further downside, helping the pair to find some support ahead of mid-0.6700s – or weekly lows.
 
Moreover, investors also seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bets and preferred to wait on the sidelines ahead of the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech at Jackson Hole on Friday, which might further lead to a subdued/range-bound price action.

Thursday’s US economic docket – featuring the release of flash manufacturing/services PMI – though is unlikely to be a game-changer, will be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities later during the early North-American session on Thursday.

Technical levels to watch