AUD/USD Forecast: Chances still skewed to the upside

Valeria Bednarik FXStreet

AUD/USD Current Price: 0.7756

Upbeat Australian employment data pushed AUD/USD higher.
Australia will publish this Friday the preliminary estimate of January’s Retail Sales.
AUD/USD is bullish, consolidating gains above the 0.7700 threshold.

The AUD/USD pair peaked at 0.7780 this Thursday, boosted by encouraging Australian employment data. The country added 50K new job positions as expected in December, 36.5K of them full-time positions. The unemployment rate came down to 6.6% from 6.8%, beating expectations of 6.7%. Consumer Inflation Expectations in the country stood at 3.4% in January, down from 3.5% in the previous month.

During the upcoming Asian session, Australia will publish the preliminary estimate of January Retail Sales, previously at 7.1%. The country will also release the Commonwealth Bank Services PMI, foreseen at 57.4 from 57 previously, and the Manufacturing PMI, expected at 55.9 from 55.7.

AUD/USD short-term technical outlook

The AUD/USD pair is comfortable around 0.7750 little changed for the day. The 4-hour chart shows that it remains above bullish moving averages, with the 20 SMA and the 100 SMA converging around 0.7720, providing dynamic support. Technical indicators have eased from near overbought readings, but lost bearish strength within positive levels, indicating limited bearish interest.

Support levels: 0.7720 0.7690 0.7655

Resistance levels: 0.7770 0.7815 0.7850

View Live Chart for the AUD/USD

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Author

Valeria Bednarik

FXStreet

Valeria Bednarik was born and lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her passion for math and numbers pushed her into studying economics in her younger years.

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