- US-China trade optimism continues to underpin the China-proxy Aussie.
- A goodish pickup in the USD demand kept a lid on any strong up-move.
- US PPI figures came-in stronger-than-expected but did little to influence.
The AUD/USD pair held on to its mildly positive tone through the early North-American session and had a rather muted reaction to the latest US PPI figures.
The recent optimism over the resumption of the US-China trade talks in early October continued underpinning the China-proxy Australian Dollar and assisted the pair to build on last week’s strong recovery move from sub-0.6700 level, or closer to multi-year lows set in August.
Stronger USD seemed to cap gains
The pair climbed to its highest since late-July, around the 0.6885 region, albeit lacked any strong follow-through amid a goodish pickup in the US Dollar demand. The ongoing upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields lifted the greenback to one-week tops and capped the major.
The bid tone surrounding the USD remained unabated following the release of Wednesday’s stronger US data, which showed that Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.1% in August as compared to a flat reading expected and core PPI jumped 0.3% during the reported month from -0.1% previous.
The market reaction, however, remained limited as investors seemed convinced that the upward pressure seen on the core rate in August is unlikely to persist, which did little to dampen prospects for a further monetary easing by the Fed at its upcoming meeting on September 17-18.
Hence, it will be prudent to wait for a subsequent slide below an immediate strong support near mid-0.6800s before confirming that the recent rally of over 200-pips has already run out of the steam and positioning for any further corrective slide back towards the 0.6800 round figure mark.
Technical levels to watch