AUD/USD stays firmer towards 0.7400 on coronavirus concerns

AUD/USD picks up bids to intraday top but struggles to extend previous day’s gains.
Victoria, South Australia up for easing local lockdowns, NSW spoils the mood.
US Senators jostle over infrastructure spending, Sino-American tussles escalate.
RBA’s Debelle, US Durable Goods Orders will be important for near-term directions.

Anil Panchal FXStreet

AUD/USD edges higher around the intraday top, recently easing 0.7383, amid a quiet Asian session on Tuesday. The Aussie pair registered a positive daily closing the previous day as the covid counts eased in the Pacific major. However, the market’s cautious sentiment ahead of the key data/events, coupled with the US-China tension and US infrastructure spending deadlock, weighs on the prices.

With the lowest daily infections since July 15, Victoria is up for easing the lockdown restrictions while South Australia may also follow the suit with zero virus-related fresh cases. However, the authorities from New South Wales (NSW) are worried over the recent jump in covid numbers and death tolls, while also being criticized for vaccinations.

Elsewhere, the UK marked a sixth consecutive daily fall in the covid infections on Monday to a new low in over three weeks, to 24,950 on Monday from 29,173 on Sunday per Reuters. Though, the US fades victory over the pandemic and keeps borders closed amid fears of covid variant.

On a different page, US lawmakers remain at loggerheads over President Joe Biden’s infrastructure spending passage. The latest comments from US Democratic Senator Joe Manchin were, “Hell no, we're not pulling the plug”, tweeted CNN’s Manu Raju. It’s worth noting that China’s crackdown on technology talks and the Sino-American talks over the US visa restrictions on Chinese diplomats.

Amid these plays, Wall Street benchmarks posted record daily closings but S&P 500 Futures struggle of late. Further, the US 10-year Treasury yields remain firmer around 1.29% by the press time.

Given the lack of major data/events in Asia, AUD/USD traders will keep their eyes on the early signal for US Q2 GDP, namely Durable Goods Orders for June. Also important will be the comments from RBA Assistant Governor Guy Debelle.

Read: Durable Goods Orders Preview: Why expectations could be too high, data useful for trading GDP

Should the RBA official backs the Aussie central bank’s recently dovish forecasts and covid fears, coupled with the strong US data, AUD/USD may pare the latest gains.

Technical analysis

Despite overcoming a three-week-old resistance line, now support, around 0.7360, AUD/USD bulls need to cross 0.7440 hurdle, comprising 21-DMA and a descending trend line from June 11, to retake the controls.

Additional important levels

Overview
Today last price	0.7386
Today Daily Change	0.0002
Today Daily Change %	0.03%
Today daily open	0.7384

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.7441
Daily SMA50	0.7586
Daily SMA100	0.765
Daily SMA200	0.7594

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.7391
Previous Daily Low	0.733
Previous Weekly High	0.7417
Previous Weekly Low	0.7288
Previous Monthly High	0.7794
Previous Monthly Low	0.7477
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.7368
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.7353
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.7346
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.7308
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.7285
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.7407
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.7429
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.7468

Author

Anil Panchal

FXStreet

Anil Panchal has nearly 15 years of experience in tracking financial markets. With a keen interest in macroeconomics, Anil aptly tracks global news/updates and stays well-informed about the global financial moves and their implications.

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