AUD/USD targeting post-FOMC lows at 0.7530 on bad Australian and China data

The AUD/USD pair failed to hold the upside once again in the upper bound of the 0.75 handle and reverted towards the 0.7550 support area, as the bears regained control following the releases of worse-than-expected Australian employment and Chinese data dump.

An unexpected drop in the Australian full-time employment numbers combined with a big miss on the Chinese retail sales and fixed asset investment data cast doubts on the economic growth outlook in both the economies.

More so, weaker oil and copper prices add to the renewed downslide in the resource-linked Aussie, as the major remains unperturbed by broad-based US dollar strength.

The greenback remains on the back foot across the board, despite a 25bps Fed rate hike, as markets believe Fed tightening could be ending sooner than expected after the US central bank kept the neutral rate unchanged.

Attention now turns towards the key US retail sales data for fresh trading impetus on the Aussie. Markets are expecting the US retail sales to tick higher to 0.4% in May versus 0.3% booked in April while core figures are also seen rising to 0.5% versus 0.3% last.

AUD/USD Technical Levels

Omkar Godbole Analyst at FXStreet notes key technical levels for the Aussie: “Resistance: 0.7624 (June 12 high), 0.7677 (June 6 high), 0.7707 (100-day MA). Support: 0.7524 (flag support), 0.7476 (May 30 low), 0.7412 (May 9 low).”