AUD/USD struggles near 0.7170 ahead of RBA minutes

The AUD/USD pair trades near 0.7170 during the early Asian session on Tuesday. The pair moved little on Monday due to lack of fresh directives. Though, the monotony is likely to breached soon as investors have started being cautious ahead of the RBA meeting minutes that are up for release in the next few hours.

While upbeat data from its largest customer, China, helped the Aussie to remain positive on Monday, mixed comments from the US lawmakers during the US session trimmed some of the previous gains.

It should also be noted that the Aussie is considered to be a risk barometer and sluggish results from the US giants like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup did affect the market risk profiles.
10-year US treasury yields form the US remained little changed to 2.56% at the press time.

Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) April month board meeting will be closely watched considering the central bank's shift in monetary policy bias and an addition into the rate statement that signals the easing on the cards during the future policy meetings. Additionally, weak activity reports and business survey results confront strong employment details and the same could be spotted in the minute statement.

From the US, March month industrial production will be up for release and is likely to grow 0.2% versus the earlier revised figure of 0.0%.

The trade negotiations between the US and China have so far refrained from offering any big negative headlines. The US is easing some of the demands on industrial subsidies from China in order to avail more agricultural demand. Though, talks over currency manipulation are still in pipeline and have the ability to moves the sentiment either way.

AUD/USD Technical Analysis

In addition to a downward sloping trend-line ranging from June 2018, at 0.7185, 200-day simple moving average (SMA) near 0.7195 – 0.7200, could also limit the pair’s immediate upside. It should also be noted that the break of 0.7200 might not refrain from fueling the quote towards 0.7235/40 resistance-area.

Meanwhile 100-day SMA level of 0.7140 and 50-day SMA level of 0.7105 can offer nearby supports to the pair ahead of an ascending trend-line stretched since early-March near 0.7080.