AUD/USD: modestly up ahead of US data
|AUD/USD Current price: 0.7439
- Chinese growth surprised to the upside in Q2 2018, up 1.8% in the three months to June.
- US Retail Sales expected to have advanced by 0.4% in June.
The American dollar trades with a soft tone at the beginning of the week, helping its rivals to advance some. The AUD/USD pair stands near its daily high of 0.7441, some 20 pips above Friday's close, helped by an encouraging Chinese GDP, up in the second quarter of the year 1.8%, beating expectations of 1.6%. The yearly reading came as expected at 6.7%, below the previous 6.8%. Also coming from China, Retail Sales grew 9.0% in June, in line with market's forecast, while May Industrial Production posted a 6.0% increase, missing expectations of 6.5%.
The US will release today June Retail Sales, forecasted to have grown by 0.4%. The closely watched control group figure is also expected to post 0.4%, following a 0.5% in May. The report needs to post a big divergence to move the market, as the trade war, and the upcoming Fed head, Powell's testimony before the Congress will gather most of the attention this week.
Technically, the 4 hours chart shows that the pair continues trading between parallel moving averages, while technical indicators lost upward strength in bullish territory, the RSI currently flat around 56 and the Momentum turning south, indicating limited buying interest. The 0.7440/50 area is the immediate resistance with an acceleration through it opening doors for a retest of this month´s high at 0.7483. Bears will get back the grip on a clear break below the 0.7370 support.
Support levels: 0.7400 0.7370 0.7330
Resistance levels: 0.7450 0.7490 0.7520
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