AUD/USD off lows, still holds weaker below 0.74 mark

   •  Chinese trade data-led uptick turns out to be short-lived.
   •  Persistent USD buying prompts some fresh selling.
   •  Weaker commodity prices add to the downward pressure.

The AUD/USD pair maintained its offered tone through the mid-European session, albeit now seems to have found some support near the 0.7365 region.

Today's better-than-expected Chinese trade surplus data did provide a minor lift to the China-proxy Australian Dollar and assisted the pair to build on overnight goodish recovery move. The uptick, however, quickly fizzled out and met with some aggressive selling amid persistent US Dollar buying interest. 

Signs that the world's two biggest economies are willing to resume trade talks and resolve their differences eased concerns over a full-blown US-China trade war. This coupled with firming expectations that the Fed remains on track to raise interest rate at least two more times by the end of this year kept pushing the greenback higher and exerted some fresh downward pressure on the major. 

Meanwhile, the prevailing bearish sentiment around commodity space, especially copper, which tends to influence demand for commodity-linked currencies - like the Aussie, also did little to stall the downfall back closer to weekly lows set in the previous session.

The USD bulls now seemed taking some breather, amid a sharp slide in the US Treasury bond yields, and was seen as one of the key factors lending some support, at least for the time being.

Traders now look forward to the US economic docket, featuring the release of Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment and the Fed Monetary Policy Report in order to grab some meaningful opportunities on the last trading day of the week. 

Technical levels to watch

The 0.7365 area might continue to act as an immediate support, below which the pair is likely to head back towards over two-year lows, around the 0.7315-10 region, with some intermediate support around 0.7335 level.

On the flip side, the 0.7400 handle might now cap any immediate up-move, which if cleared might trigger a short-covering move towards 0.7440 intermediate resistance en-route the 0.7480-85 heavy supply zone.