AUD/USD holds steady above 0.7300 mark, lacks follow-through

AUD/USD gained some traction on Friday and recovered further from weekly lows.
The prevalent selling bias surrounding the USD extended some support to the major.
A cautious mood around the equity markets held bulls from placing aggressive bets.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The AUD/USD pair edged higher for the sixth consecutive session on Friday, albeit lacked any strong follow-through and remained confined in a familiar trading range.

The pair built on the previous day's goodish bounce of around 60 pips from weekly lows and gained some follow-through traction on the last trading day of the week. The prevalent selling bias surrounding the US dollar was seen as one of the key factors lending some support to the AUD/USD pair.

As investors looked past the Fed's upbeat assessment of the US economic recovery, the greenback came under some renewed selling pressure following Thursday's rather unimpressive US economic data. In fact, the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index edged lower to 15 in September from 17.2 previous, while the Initial Jobless Claims, Building Permits and Housing Starts all fell short of market expectations.

However, a softer risk tone – as depicted by a cautious mood around the equity markets – held investors from buying the perceived riskier Australian dollar. This, in turn, kept a lid on any runaway rally for the AUD/USD pair, at least for the time being.

Even from a technical perspective, the pair has been oscillating in a range over the past one week or so. This makes it prudent to wait for some strong follow-through buying before positioning for any further gains towards reclaiming the 0.7400 mark en-route YTD tops, around the 0.7415 region.

Market participants now look forward to the release of the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for September. The data might influence the USD price dynamics, which, along with the broader market risk sentiment, might assist traders to grab some meaningful opportunities.

Technical levels to watch

AUD/USD

Overview
Today last price	0.7321
Today Daily Change	0.0009
Today Daily Change %	0.12
Today daily open	0.7312

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.7277
Daily SMA50	0.7183
Daily SMA100	0.6965
Daily SMA200	0.6766

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.7317
Previous Daily Low	0.7254
Previous Weekly High	0.7325
Previous Weekly Low	0.7192
Previous Monthly High	0.7416
Previous Monthly Low	0.7076
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.7293
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.7278
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.7272
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.7231
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.7208
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.7335
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.7358
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.7399

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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