AUD/USD drops to lowest level since March 2009 at 0.6672

Falling copper prices weigh on commodity-sensitive AUD on Friday.
US Dollar Index climbs to fresh multi-month highs above 98.60.
Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in the US is expected to rise to 160K in January.

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

The AUD/USD pair extended its slide after breaking below the 0.6700 handle and touched its lowest level since March of 2009 at 0.6672 before recovering modestly. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.6685, erasing 0.68% on a daily basis.

Falling copper prices amid concerns over the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on China's metal demand hurt the commodity-sensitive AUD. "Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.4% to $5,713.50 a tonne," Reuters reported. "The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 0.6% at 45,670 yuan ($6,545.89) a tonne."

Furthermore, the data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Retail Sales in December declined by 0.5% on a monthly basis in December to further weigh on the AUD.

DXY extends rally on Friday

On the other hand, the sour market sentiment helps the relatively safer USD continue to find demand on Friday with the US Dollar Index (DXY) rising to its best level since October at 98.62. At the moment, the index is up 0.12% on the day at 98.59.

In the early trading hours of the American session, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its closely-watched Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report. Analysts see the NFP rising to 160K in January from 145K in December.

Previewing the data, "the tight labor market should continue to translate into modest wage growth," said Wells Fargo analysts. "We expect average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in January, which would suggest a modest lift in the year-ago rate to 3.0%.”

US NFP Preview: 6 Major Banks expectations for January payrolls report.

Technical levels to watch for

AUD/USD

Overview
Today last price	0.6684
Today Daily Change	-0.0045
Today Daily Change %	-0.67
Today daily open	0.6729

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.681
Daily SMA50	0.6861
Daily SMA100	0.6833
Daily SMA200	0.6865

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.6765
Previous Daily Low	0.6727
Previous Weekly High	0.6829
Previous Weekly Low	0.6682
Previous Monthly High	0.704
Previous Monthly Low	0.6682
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.6742
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.675
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.6716
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.6702
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.6678
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.6754
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.6778
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.6792

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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