AUD/USD eases from 4-1/2 month tops, still comfortable above 0.6900 handle

US-China trade optimism helped AUD/USD to add to this week’s strong gains.
Surging pound weighed on the USD, which provided an additional boost.
Investors look forward to US retail sales data for some meaningful impetus.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The AUD/USD pair was seen oscillating in a range, comfortably above the 0.6900 handle and consolidated recent strong gains to 4-1/2 month tops.

The pair built on this week's solid bounce from the 100-day SMA support near the 0.6800 round-figure mark and gained some follow-through traction for the third consecutive session on Friday amid renewed US-China trade optimism.

Renewed trade optimism underpinned the aussie

A Bloomberg News report on Thursday indicated that the US has reached a “phase-one” trade deal in principle with China, which now averts the planned US tariffs on around $160 billion worth of Chinese goods on December 15.

Adding to this, the US negotiators have also offered to reduce existing tariffs on about $375 billion by 50%. The latest developments led to a fresh wave of the global risk-on trade and provided a strong boost to the China-proxy aussie.

This coupled with some renewed weakness surrounding the US dollar, primarily on the back of a strong upsurge in the British pound, remained supportive of the pair's positive momentum to the highest level since July 26.

Given the pair's upsurge of around 140 pips over the past three trading sessions, bulls took some breather amid slightly overbought conditions and look forward to the release of the US monthly retail sales data for a fresh impetus.

Technical levels to watch

AUD/USD

Overview
Today last price	0.6925
Today Daily Change	0.0015
Today Daily Change %	0.22
Today daily open	0.691

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.6816
Daily SMA50	0.6823
Daily SMA100	0.6807
Daily SMA200	0.6911

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.6913
Previous Daily Low	0.6866
Previous Weekly High	0.6863
Previous Weekly Low	0.6762
Previous Monthly High	0.6929
Previous Monthly Low	0.6754
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.6895
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.6884
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.6879
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.6849
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.6832
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.6927
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.6944
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.6974

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

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