AUD/USD breaks below 0.7900, fresh daily lows

After advancing to the area of 0.7930 during the Asian trading hours, AUD/USD met a wave of selling orders that forced it to not only give away those initial gains but also to retreat to the sub-0.7900 region, or fresh session lows.

AUD/USD now looks to wage data

Spot paid little-to-nil attention to the RBA minutes released earlier today, as they left no room for surprises, coming in well in line with initial market expectations and noting once again that the labour market, business conditions, activity overseas and commodity prices have all been performing above the central bank’s expectations.

In addition the RBA seems to have now shifted its interest from the exchange rate – view that prevailed in the last couple of years – to the labour market, with wages in the centre of the debate.

In the meantime, the pair is now navigating the negative territory in the 0.7900 neighbourhood, around a cent lower than last week’s peaks in the boundaries of the psychological 0.80 mark and down nearly 3% since 2018 tops in the mid-0.8100s recorded in late January.

Furthermore from the speculative community, AUD net longs dropped to 5-week lows during the week ended on February 13, according to the latest CFTC report.

Looking ahead, and in light of the recent message from the RBA, Wage Price Index for the fourth quarter is due tomorrow, seconded by Construction Work Done during the same period.

AUD/USD levels to watch

At the moment the pair is losing 0.25% at 0.7893 and a breakdown of 0.7882 (low Feb.20) would open the door to 0.7839 (55-day sma) and finally 0.7759 (2018 low Feb.9). On the other hand, the next resistance aligns at 0.7946 (21-day sma) seconded by 0.7991 (high Feb.16) and then 0.8136 (2018 high Jan.26).