AUD/USD trades in negative territory near 0.7060 despite USD weakness

• US Dollar Index fails to hold above the 97 mark.
• Poor consumer confidence data from Australia hurts the AUD.
• February PPI figures and January durable goods orders from the U.S. are coming up next.

Despite the broad-based USD weakness on Wednesday, the AUD/USD pair is struggling to rise into the positive territory. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.7061, losing 0.25% on a daily basis.

Earlier today, the Westpac Consumer Confidence released by the Faculty of Economics and Commerce Melbourne Institute dropped to -4.8% in March from 4.3% in February to weigh on the AUD. Furthermore, major Asian equity indexes suffered heavy losses to make it difficult for risk-sensitive currencies such as the AUD to find demand.

On the other hand, the greenback is having a tough time gaining traction following yesterday’s sell-off that was fueled by the disappointing inflation data and a more-than-1% fall in the 10-year Treasury bond yield. Ahead of the PPI data and durable goods orders releases later in the session, the US Dollar Index is down 0.1% on the day at 96.90.

Previewing today’s data from the U.S., “We see scope for an upside surprise and forecast a modest 0.1% expansion despite our estimate for a contraction in the ex-transportation measure. Separately, producer prices are expected to post their first month-on-month gain in two months, likely reflecting the recovery in energy prices in February.” TD Securities analysts  said.

Key technical levels