AUD/USD struggles near 1-1/2 week lows, well below 0.70 handle

The ongoing USD upsurge continues to exert downward pressure on the major.
Westpac anticipates an early RBA rate cut and added to the prevalent selling bias.
A positive US-China trade-related development does little to lend any support.

Haresh Menghani FXStreet

The AUD/USD pair weakened farther below the key 0.70 psychological mark and dropped to 1-1/2 week lows during the Asian session on Wednesday.

The pair extended its retracement slide from near three-month tops set last Friday and remained under some selling pressure for the fourth consecutive session amid the ongoing US Dollar upsurge to near five-week tops.

As investors continue scaling back expectations for an aggressive monetary easing by the Fed at its upcoming meeting on July 30-31, the greenback was further supported by a deal to raise the US government debt ceiling.

Meanwhile, the Australian Dollar was further weighed down by the fact that one of the big four Australia banks - Westpac brought forward the timing of the next interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

The investment bank now expects the RBA to deliver a 25 bps rate cut in October as compared to the previous forecast of a rate cut in November and exerted some additional downward pressure on the domestic currency.

Meanwhile, a positive trade-related development - wherein the officials from the US and China were reported to begin in-person trade talks sometime next week, failed to lend any support to the China-proxy Australian Dollar.

Moving ahead, Wednesday's US economic docket - featuring the releases of flash manufacturing and services PMIs, along with New Home Sales data for June, will now be looked upon for some short-term trading opportunities.

Technical levels to watch

AUD/USD

Overview
Today last price	0.6983
Today Daily Change	-0.0021
Today Daily Change %	-0.30
Today daily open	0.7004

Trends
Daily SMA20	0.7004
Daily SMA50	0.6956
Daily SMA100	0.7016
Daily SMA200	0.709

Levels
Previous Daily High	0.7037
Previous Daily Low	0.6996
Previous Weekly High	0.7082
Previous Weekly Low	0.6996
Previous Monthly High	0.7026
Previous Monthly Low	0.6831
Daily Fibonacci 38.2%	0.7012
Daily Fibonacci 61.8%	0.7021
Daily Pivot Point S1	0.6988
Daily Pivot Point S2	0.6971
Daily Pivot Point S3	0.6947
Daily Pivot Point R1	0.7029
Daily Pivot Point R2	0.7053
Daily Pivot Point R3	0.707

Author

Haresh Menghani

FXStreet

Haresh Menghani is a detail-oriented professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in analysing the global financial markets.

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