AUD/USD consolidates upbeat Aussie data-led gains to near 3-month tops

The AUD/USD pair held on to its upbeat Aussie data-led strong gains, albeit has retreated few pips from near 3-month tops touched in the last hour.

The pair traded with a positive bias for the second consecutive session and caught some strong bids following a big beat from Australian monthly retail sales data, coming in to show strong m-o-m growth of 1.2% for November as against a rise of 0.5% recorded in the previous month.

The pair, however, now seemed struggling to build on the up-move and lacked any strong follow-through momentum amid a goodish US Dollar rebound. The USD regained traction on Thursday and reversed a major part of previous session's steep decline led by reports that China is considering slowing or halting its purchases of the US Treasuries. 

Clarification from a Chinese government source, that media reports could be based on wrong information, remained supportive of the buck's strong rebound and might continue to keep a lid on any additional strong gains for the major.

Moving ahead, investors now look forward to the US economic docket, featuring the release of PPI print and the usual weekly jobless claims, for some fresh trading impetus ahead of Chinese trade balance data, due for release during the Asian session on Friday.

Technical levels to watch

Immediate support is now pegged near 0.7840 level, below which the pair is likely to extend the corrective slide back towards the 0.7800 handle before eventually dropping to test 100-day SMA support near the 0.7775 region.

On the upside, 0.7885 level, closely followed by the 0.7900 handle, might act as immediate hurdles, which if cleared might continue to boost the pair further towards its next resistance near the 0.7940-45 region.