AUD/USD Price Analysis: Remains on the defensive around 0.6530

The AUD/USD pair remains under pressure and trades on a defensive note around the 0.6530 mark heading into the early European session on Tuesday. The prevalent US Dollar buying bias following the hawkish comment from Atlanta Federal Reserve (Fed) Governor Michelle Bowman supports the US Dollar and exerts pressure on AUD/USD. The major pair currently trades around 0.6531, losing 0.65% for the day.

Furthermore, the mixed economic reading from Australia and China joins the headline about geopolitical tension between Japan and China, exerts pressure on the China-proxy Australian Dollar (AUD), and caps the upside in the AUD/USD pair.

From a technical perspective, AUD/USD holds below the 50- and 100-hour Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) on the four-hour chart, which means further downside looks favourable for the time being.

That said, any intraday pullback below 0.6525 (the lower limit of the Bollinger Band) would expose the next contention level in the 0.6490 area (Low of May 26). Further south, the next stop of the AUD/USD is located at 0.6460 (Low of May 31) and finally at 0.6400 (the confluence of a psychological round figure and the low of Nov 2022).

Looking at the upside, some follow-through buying towards the upper boundary of the Bollinger Band around 0.6560 will see a rally to the next barrier at the 0.6600–0.6610 zone. The mentioned level highlights the confluence of a psychological round figure and a 50-hour EMA. Following that, AUD/USD has room to test the additional upside filter at 0.6655 (the 100-hour EMA) en route to 0.6700 (High of July 31, round figure).

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands below 50, challenging the pair’s immediate downside for the time being.

AUD/USD four-hour chart