USD/CHF slips below 0.9900 handle, 3-week lows

• The USD remained depressed despite a goodish pickup in the US bond yields.
• A positive mood around equity markets does little to ease the bearish pressure.
• Traders now eye second-tier US economic releases for some short-term impetus.

The USD/CHF pair tumbled to over three-week lows in the last hour, with bears now looking to extend the downward momentum further below the 0.9900 handle.
 
The pair extended this week’s rejection slide from the vicinity of the key parity mark and remained under some heavy selling pressure for the second consecutive session amid the prevalent US Dollar selling bias.

Weighed down by persistent USD selling bias

Despite a strong intraday turnaround in the US Treasury bond yields, the USD bulls remained on the defensive in the wake of firming market expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates again later this month.
 
The ongoing intraday slide to the lowest level since September 25 seemed rather unaffected by a positive mood around equity markets, which tend to undermine the Swiss Franc’s perceived safe-haven demand.
 
Thursday’s sharp downfall could further be attributed to some technical selling on a sustained break below a two-month-old ascending trend-channel support, paving way for a further depreciating move.
 
Hence, some follow-through weakness, possibly towards testing September 24-25 swing lows support near the 0.9850-45 region, now looks a distinct possibility amid absent top-tier economic releases from the US.
 
The US economic docket features the release of Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, along with housing market data and industrial production figures, which seems unlikely to provide any immediate respite to the USD bulls but might still produce some short-term trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch