AUD/USD clings to gains near 1-1/2 week tops, around mid-0.7100s

   •  US-China trade optimism continues to underpin China-proxy Aussie. 
   •  The uptick remains supportive amid some renewed USD selling bias.

The AUD/USD pair built on the previous session's goodish bounce from sub-0.7100 level and climbed to 1-1/2 week tops during the Asian session on Monday.

A combination of supporting factors helped the pair catch some fresh bids at the start of a new trading week and continue scaling higher for the third consecutive session, also marking the fourth day of positive movement in the previous five. 

The US Dollar extended Friday's retracement slide from fresh 2019, triggered by the US President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency on border security, and was seen as one of the key factors lending some support to the major.

Adding to this, growing optimism over a possible resolution to the US-China trade talks, especially after both sides reported progress in last week's trade talks, remained supportive of the positive tone surrounding the China-proxy Australian Dollar. 

The negotiations are set to resume this week in Washington, which along with the publication of the latest FOMC meeting minutes on Wednesday would play an important role in determining the pair's next leg of a directional move. 

In the meantime, the USD price dynamics might continue to act as an exclusive driver of the pair's momentum amid absent relevant market moving economic releases on Monday and relatively thin liquidity conditions on the back of President’s Day holiday in the US.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate resistance is now pegged near the 0.7175 region, above which the pair is likely to aim towards surpassing the 0.7200 handle and test the 0.7225-30 supply zone. On the flip side, the 0.7110-0.7100 region now seems to act as immediate support, which if broken might turn the pair vulnerable t aim back towards testing the 0.7060-55 strong horizontal support.