AUD/USD stays under pressure around 100-day EMA, eyes on RBA’s Kent’s speech

Following its pullback from the five-week high, AUD/USD holds on to weakness while trading around 0.6850 at the start of Wednesday’s Asian session.

Fading positive trade sentiment and the US Dollar (USD) strength amid a mild risk-on seems to have played their roles in dragging the Aussie backward from the multi-week high.

Among the trade catalysts comments from the White House Economic Adviser that unresolved trade issues with China during the initial talks could spill over into phase two. Also adding the pessimism is the latest news from the US Department of Commerce that ordered antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of imports of aluminum wire and cable from China in order to ascertain that the dragon nation sold them at less than fair value.

On the other hand, the USD recently benefited from the market’s risk aversion amid the Brexit doubts as well as upbeat reading of the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index that avoided a negative reading and rose to the highest since April.

Investors will now keep an eye over the speech from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) Christopher Kent who is to participate in a panel discussion at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, in Sydney. It should be noted that the recent comments from the Aussie central bank have been mixed but a surprise decline in the Aussie Unemployment Rate will be remembered while following the comments from the RBA policymaker.

With the US economic calendar being almost empty, trade/Brexit headlines will hold their importance to drive markets.

Technical Analysis

A sustained decline below the 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) level of 0.6850 becomes necessary for the bears to expect the return of 0.6820 and 0.6800. Should prices reverse, an upside break of 0.6885 can propel the pair to 0.6900/10 area.