AUD/JPY remains under pressure despite upbeat Aussie trade numbers

Even after witnessing broadly upbeat trade numbers, AUD/JPY fails to recovery while taking rounds to 74.90 during Thursday’s Asian session.

Australia’s September month trade numbers signal that the headlines Trade Balance bear market expectations of 5,000M with 7,180M numbers whereas Imports and Exports grew 3% each versus 0% and -3% respectively priors.

The pair sellers previously ignored better than previous figures of Australia’s AiG Performance of Construction Index, to 43.9 from 42.6, while also shrugged off Reuters’ Tankan Manufacturing Survey data for Japan that dropped to the lowest since March 2013.

Market’s risk sentiment has been sluggish off-late amid mixed news concerning the US-China trade relations and Brexit. While the United States (US) is likely to step back from its December 15 tariff hike on Chinese goods, “phase one” is still delayed to December from the much-anticipated mid-November deadline. Elsewhere, political plays in the United Kingdom (UK) seem to favor the ruling Tory party after key opposition members filed a shock resignation.

It should also be noted that unclear monetary policy signals from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have also contributed to tame the pair’s latest moves.

Given the lack of major data/events, traders will keep following trade/Brexit headlines for fresh direction ahead of tomorrow’s quarterly Monetary Policy Statement from the RBA.

Technical analysis

Price portrays a short-term rising wedge bearish technical formation on the four-hour chart that gets confirmed on the pair’s sustained break below 108.75. In doing so, sellers could aim for October 11 top near 74.00 ahead of 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of October-November upside, around 73.15. On the upside, 75.45 and a rising trend line since October 22 around 75.62 could hinder the quote’s advances to 76.00 round-figure and July month high adjacent to 76.30.